


Revan Reborn

by Reven_Onasi



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Adult Mission Vao, Adventure & Romance, Anal Sex, Blood and Violence, Darker universe, Emotionally Repressed Bastila, Force Bonds, Force-Sensitive Carth, Force-Sensitive Mission, Huge and Awesome Zaalbar, Intense Relationships, Mission being awesome, Mission's Verbal Beat-Downs, Multi, Oral Sex, Revan breaking down, Suspicious Carth, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:36:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 36,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29612304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reven_Onasi/pseuds/Reven_Onasi
Summary: Betrayed by his apprentice, captured by the Jedi, mind broken and reformed into that of a soldier. Revan fights for answers to his past. Once he finds them, will he fight for life and the light, or bring the galaxy to it knees? Story follows the major events of the game.
Relationships: Male Revan/Mission Vao, Revan/Bastila Shan, Revan/Meetra Surik
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> A/N  
> This is a Fic that I started on FF.net, I'm posting it here just in case I get hit by the 'no lemons' ban hammer. While admittedly unlikely I don't want to chance it. I'll be posting the whole thing here, once I get it edited, then post new stuff to both sites concurrently.

Chapter 1

Awakening

  
  
  


The hum and hiss of lightsabers flashed back and forth across the dim cavernous bridge, the multicolored streaks of the flashing weapons providing odd bursts of color striking a surreal counterpoint to the screams of pain and frustration from the combatants below. The scent of ozone, blood and cooked flesh filled my nostrils. Bodies lay everywhere across the decking, some wore the robes, both the brown and tan of the Jedi and the black and grey of the Sith. Still others wore the red and silver armor of Sith troopers. Some were missing limbs, some were burnt and charred, others lay at unnatural angles, their bones shattered. Scorch marks and deep half melted cuts marred the floors and walls. I was seeing not a battlefield, but a slaughterhouse. 

There in the midst of the chaos and screams of the surviving Jedi, a lone figure in black flashed across the room dancing between opponents as though he were performing, rather than slaughtering some of the most dangerous beings in the Republic. He seemed nothing but a black blur at times. Moving so fast that the vibrant purple lightsaber he wielded seemed to be a solid sheet of light as he flashed past, cutting through the slower and weaker members of the Jedi’s boarding party. The Jedi were fighting with all they had, shouting orders to each other, trying to organize into a united offence, but it was no use against the black robed Sith Lord. He dove and spun between them with ease, taking and arm here, or a leg there, only to reappear moments later to end the wounded Jedi’s life. He never stopped, never slowed, his dance of death was endless and seemingly unstoppable. 

I watched as the unnaturally graceful figure continued his relentless destruction, killing more than a two dozen Jedi single handed until there was only one left standing. There alone in the middle of the chaos, a beautiful brown haired young woman in a form fitting cream colored outfit under a simple brown robe. She stood with her palms pressed flat together and her eyes closed. When the last of her comrades fell she seemed to let out a deep shuddering breath, but made no other movements. 

Suddenly the Black Robed figure seemed to materialize out of the gloom to stop in front of a beautiful brunette Jedi. Her eyes snapped open and her double bladed lightsaber flew from the clip on her belt and into her open palm. She seemed far too young for the look of utter defeat that flashed across her face. Yet despite that, she ignited and raised her Double bladed Saber only pausing long enough to narrow her eyes in determination before flashing forward with incredible speed. She chased the black robed figure across the deck, the blades of her lightsaber flowing into a single two meter wide disk of deadly golden light. 

If the Sith lord was startled by her sudden attack he made no sign of it. He simply retreated back, seeming to disappear from before her to reappear a few feet away. No matter how fast the young Jedi moved she simply couldn’t hit the black robed figure. She continued undaunted, steadily chasing the figure across the deck and back. It was obvious that he was toying with her, and she seemed to know it as well, her face stayed impassive at first but by the second time she chased him the full length of the bridge she was gritting her teeth in frustration. 

By the third pass across the deck, three Jedi stragglers rushed onto the bridge looking tired but determined as they surveyed the scene before them. Pausing only a moment to take in the utter carnage of the bridge, they rushed to the aid of the young Jedi who was still chasing the Dark Lord across the bridge. I couldn’t hear it, but I could swear the black robed man was laughing.

The three new Jedi were all older than the young woman. Two males and one female. The men wore the robes of Jedi, while the woman wore black battle armor. The two males were both human, one dark skinned, black as ebony in the dim light of the bridge with a bald head in his mid fifties. The other was much younger and light skinned with blond hair and bright green eyes flashing with repressed rage as he charged head long at the black clad Sith lord. The female was a deep violet skinned Twi’lek with matching violet eyes who looked no more than thirty. Of the three she was by far the most dangerous, she carried two silver bladed Shoto sabers marking her as a Jedi Weapons Master, the most skilled combat experts of the Jedi Order. Mastering all seven traditional forms of lightsaber combat was only the beginning of the requirements of joining their legendary ranks. 

Apparently the Dark Lord recognized the danger, he disengaged the young Jedi he was amusing himself with by slamming her in the chest with a force push powerful enough to send her flipping end over end several meters back straight into the oncoming Jedi. The older man deactivated his saber at once and leaped into the air, letting her slam into him and sending them both sprawling across the deck stunned. 

The younger man distracted for the merest moment was brought sharply back to attention by the sudden arc of terrible force lightning that caught him square in the chest. The blast hit him with such force that he went flying across the bridge to slam into the bulkhead fifteen meters away with a sickening crunch. The young Jedi with the golden saber looked up just in time to see his lifeless body fall to the deck, nothing more than a smoking ruin of broken flesh. 

All at once I was in the body of the dark lord looking out through his eyes at the oncoming Weapons Master, cold determination in her eyes. I could feel the burning rage churning inside filling him with power and purpose.

No not ‘Him’. Me, I was the dark lord in that moment I could feel the unbridled power burning through every atom of my body. The hate I bore these pitiful Jedi was overwhelming, the sense of power intoxicating. I stood completely still, deep purple lightsaber humming softly at my side. I waited patiently for the weapons master to reach me, the fierce joy of the hunt intertwining with my overwhelming rage at her challenge. This woman posed no threat to me, not with the power of the Dark side so utterly under my command. Her arrogance at believing she could stand against me was laughable. She was a bug buzzing around my head, a mere annoyance and nothing more. Some hint of my emotions must have bled through my control, because her confidence faltered. Resignation slowly built up to strangle her resolve as she fell upon me, she was still determined to fight, but any hope that she would survive slowly faded. 

Disgusted with her complete lack of self preservation, I easily avoided her attack, batting aside her most powerful blows one handed without budging an inch. Despite the fact that I single handedly killed dozens of Jedi in the last few minutes, she would still walk headlong into death. This was one of the many reasons that I despised the Jedi, their absolute inflexibility. There was no room in their order for compromise, no thought to adjusting course. Just a headlong sprint forward, confident that they would win, or that their death was destined by the Force. 

Enraged beyond what I should have felt towards the woman I pulled the one the Dark Side with all my will. The force flowed through me in a torrent of power, filling my limbs with limitless burning energy as time seemed to slow. To an outside observer she would have moved with such speed as to be nothing but a blur of limbs and continuous streaks of silver light, but to me each of her strikes seemed to take forever, it felt as though I waited minutes for each attack to find my own blade.

I could have finished her in the first second of the engagement. Or for that matter, I could have simply snapped her neck with the force before she ever got near me. But I waited, toying with her. Feeding off her feelings of frustration and hopeless resignation, delighting as her confidence was crushed beneath my unstoppable power. One more piece of proof that the Jedi were a failed organization.

Not realizing the situation for what it was, the beautiful young Jedi jumped up and sprinted toward the battle, the dark skinned man right behind her. They moved with pitiful slowness, each step seeming to take forever. Although they were probably running five times faster than the most elite human sprinter alive. 

Abruptly I was out of the Dark lord looking down on the battle once more. The sudden change in perspective and perception of time, jarring me for a moment. Suddenly the two Jedi were flying forward with incredible speed covering the remaining distance in just under a second, their Lightsabers flashing with blinding speed. The fight dissolved into discs of light and blurring motion. 

Gradually my eye was drawn away from the fighting and out through the bridge's huge viewport. A fierce space battle was underway outside, strange that I hadn’t noticed it before. The Capital Class Dreadnought out the view port swiveled it’s turbo laser batteries directly at me. The Massive barrels seemed to gape open like a black holes, infinite destruction hidden in their depths.

Then the whole world exploded as dozens of red streaks of light slammed into the hull all along the ship's side, several of them smashing directly into the bridge's view port. The explosion launched the Dark lord, the Jedi and a number of the dead across the bridge to slam into the opposite bulkhead. Atmosphere instantly flew out the huge hole left by the barrage of laser fire, carrying with it a swarm of corpses and debris into space. Only scant seconds later an emergency force field sprang into place sealing the damaged viewport and stopping the gale.

I could see the young brown haired Jedi slowly get to her feat, fumbling her lightsaber onto her belt as she staggered about looking for survivors. 

Another Huge explosion rocked the ship and I felt like I was being shaken about in a bottle. But the young Jedi didn’t seem affected as she went over to check her two comrades for life signs. Apparently finding none, her shoulders shook in a single silent sob as she got back to her feet; and walked to the dark lord. He lay there, seemingly lifeless on the deck, laying completely still. A good sized piece of metal stuck out of his back a good fifteen centimeters long, and jagged from being ripped from the wall and propelled as shrapnel. Blood soaked into the cloth around the wound, turning the purple designs black where his blood was absorbed. 

As she leaned down to check his pulse, another massive shudder went through the ship, the last thing I saw were her eyes popping, open wide, with either astonishment or alarm, I couldn’t tell.

The next thing I felt was deck plaiting slamming hard into my left side. My eyes sprang wide at the shock and pain. I was laying on my side on the cold deck of my bunk room. For a moment I was completely confused, trying to pull my mind out of the dream. It had been so vivid and real, I couldn’t recall ever having a dream that felt so real. It was deeply disturbing to watch one of the greatest enemies of the Republic annihilate Jedi like that. But before I could spend too much time contemplating the dream another loud boom of metallic thunder rang through the ship. Reeling on the floor for another moment, I focused on my assignment to distract myself and pull my focus to the here and now. I was on the Endar Spire, a Hammerhead Class battle cruiser for the Republic. We were heading to Taris, an Ecumenopolis just off the Hydian Way. We were scorting a Jedi, Bastila Shan, a Jedi that was especially gifted in battle meditation. A shiver ran down my spine as I realized that the Jedi in my strange nightmare was Bastila. If I survived this I would need to talk to someone about that dream, it was uncanny. 

Apparently our mission to rendezvous with a small Republic fleet and break the Sith blockade around Taris, was not going to plan. Getting to my feet I looked around my bunkroom still slightly dazed by the dream and the sudden attack. Something must have gone wrong, we shouldn’t have been in combat for another two days. I was on board specifically to advise Bastila during the battle, and there was no way they could have readied an attack in just a few hours from when I went to sleep. 

While not the sort of mission I was normally assigned to, I was quite adept with battle strategy; and I doubted anyone on board would have been so reckless as to attack without informing me. I had no hands on experience with space combat but my orders were specific and had come from the top. I was supposed to be involved in all strategy planning from the moment I came on board, not even a Jedi would ignore orders from the Admiralty. At least I hoped they wouldn’t. 

Just then another ‘Boom’ sounded somewhere farther aft and the deck shook beneath me, causing me to lose my balance and crash back down. Deciding I didn’t have the luxury of speculation at the moment, I rolled back to my feet and went to my equipment locker, rapidly pulling on my gear. I was half in and half out of my armor when the hatch behind me made a loud ‘clunking’ noise. I spun blaster in hand, balancing on one foot. Half my body was covered in Battle Armor, the other half including one buttock hung free in the open air. Trask Ulgo stood in the open hatch, despite the strain lining his face a small smile twitched at the corner of his mouth seeing me balancing there on one leg half naked.

“Don’t say it.” I snapped, glaring at him. 

A tall thin man in his late forties Trask had gone almost completely grey making him look much older than he really was. Despite that he was still a handsome man with high broad cheekbones, a straight nose and square jaw. A classic soldier, Trask had been in the republic navy since he was nineteen years old. So for him to have that almost panicked look on his face, it must be very bad.

“What’s happened?!” I asked putting the blaster down and getting my battle armor on the rest of the way.

“We’re dead in space, the Sith interdicted us just above Taris. We’ve been boarded, Sith troopers are flooding the ship.” He replied, looking completely exhausted as he turned and closed the hatch behind him. 

“What about Bastila?” I asked, pulling on holsters for my blaster pistols and slinging my twin Vibroblades across my back. 

“Last I heard Bastila and her Jedi were making a stand on the bridge.” Trask said leaning against the wall to catch his breath.

“So we don’t have any chance of escaping with the Spire?” I asked, finally getting my Helmet locked into place. I booted up my wrist comp and my visor’s HUD, as the possibilities ran through my mind.

We were going down, that much was obvious. Once I was on the ground what would I need more than anything else in a hostile but civilized environment? I pulled on the last of my gear and grabbed a couple of large equipment bags out from under my bunk.

“No, the last order I received was to abandon ship.” He said, straightening up, confirming my own conclusions.

“We aren’t going to the escape pods” I said, tossing him a bag. “Take any weapons and equipment you can grab on the way.”

“What! Why? We don’t have time for this, we need to get to the escape pods now!” he said, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.   
“Look, my mission is to protect and advise Bastila, until I know where she is and if she’s alive I’m not going anywhere.” I said pushing past him and smacking the door release. 

I stepped out into the hall, heavily modified blaster carbine at my shoulder; scanning down the passageway for Sith. I could almost feel Trask’s disapproval behind me but he didn’t argue as we approached the hatch at the end of the hall. 

The Spires layout was a pretty simple arrangement, Hammerhead class cruisers were on the smaller side of the Republic Navy, it had two parallel sets of three decks, separated in the middle by it’s massive engine core. Designed as fast attack vessels they were built for speed and maneuverability, not size or firepower. Fortunately for us, we were in the senior crew quarters, which shared the same deck as the bridge, unfortunately we would have to make our way down the whole length of the ship to get there. 

I moved smoothly up to a hatchway that led to one of the central throughways connecting the port and starboard decks. Crouching down to the side of the hatch I hit the release with my carbine at the ready. The hatch released and slid back with a loud metallic ‘clunking’ sound. Just beyond the door were two Sith heavy troopers, blood red armor gleaming in the bright overhead lamps, heavy repeating blasters pointing straight down the hall. 

They saw us crouched to the side almost at once, but they were just a little too slow. The moment they came into view I opened up on them with my specialized blaster carbine. It’s modified focusing lens and overcharged emitter shooting out short bursts of laser fire strong enough to cut through fifteen centimeters of Durasteel. The thin armor of the heavy troopers did almost nothing to protect them. In less than two seconds I put half a dozen bursts into them, each hit burning a number of two centimeter holes clean through them. They folded up and crumpled to the floor like puppets with their strings cut. 

I waited another thirty seconds to see if they had any backup nearby. Nothing but silence interrupted by the rumbling shudders of the ship reached my ears through the sound enhancing sensors of my helmet. After all, my blaster carbine was an infiltration model, it made almost no noise when fired.

Deciding that nothing was coming I moved forward as quietly and quietly as I could, stooping down to take their weapons and gear storing it in my duffle before continuing on toward the bridge.

We came into contact with another four squads of Sith before reaching the bridge, between Trask and I we took them down quickly and efficiently. Trask objected to scavenging their weapons, but after I explained the benefits of having weapons to sell on a blockaded world, he fell silent and helped gather their gear as we went. Though I could tell that he was getting progressively more upset with each stop to scavenge. 

When we came to the bridge Trask and I dropped our bags, now heavy with spoils from the fallen. Silently I set my blaster rifle down on top of the gear bag next to the hatch and pulled my Vibroblades from the scabbards at my back. Trask followed suit by activating a Sith personal shield he pulled off a corpse and drawing his own Cortosis alloy longsword. I glanced at him gauging his readiness as I listened to the fighting just beyond the bulkhead. He nodded to me, nervous tension lining his face outlined by the faint glow of the energy field around him. Even so I could almost feel his determination despite his nervousness. 

I waited another three heart beats to steady myself and slammed my hand down on the hatch release. It smoothly and quickly slid back with loud ‘clunking’ sounds, revealing pandemonium. The bridge was quite large, about eighteen meters across at the stern, slowly tapering to about eight meters at the forward viewport. The transparisteel view port at the bow was large and looming black with a sliver of the system's star in the corner shining bright across the bridge. The walls were lined with smaller view ports, and duty stations. Swivel chairs were bolted to the deck every few feet, large bright display screens flashing crimson behind them. Alarms were blaring with startling volume making it difficult to hear anything over the klaxon shrieks. 

At the far end of the bridge near the viewport, a Jedi from Bastila’s party was dueling a Sith furiously, outlined in the blackness of space beyond them. While I recognised her face from seeing her around the Endar Spire we had never been introduced. Sparks flew from their blades as diminutive honey blond Jedi fought with a furocity that I never would have guessed before that moment. She had seemed quiet, reserved and almost shy the few times I’d seen her. Yet now as they battered each other back and forth across the deck, she looked like some kind of battle maiden out of ancient legend, meeting the much larger Sith with calm precision and matching him strike for strike.

Around them Sith and Republic troopers were locked in savage close quarters battle. Vibroblades and Cortosis daggers flashing back and forth in a desperate bid to acquaint each other’s vital organs with the deck plates. While at the same time trying just as hard to keep said vital organs right where they were. 

The sound of battle and sirens were so loud that only a couple of Sith facing the hatch noticed it open. They immediately disengaged with the few Republic soldiers they were fighting and charged us blades held high hoping to catch us off guard and end the fight before it began. One of the Republic soldiers turned, saw us and then ran after the two Sith obviously intending to take one of them from behind and help us with the other.

I was already running. The moment the hatch opened I charged in, taking in the scene of carnage and chaos on the run. I met the two Sith at a sprint, they slowed down quickly, readying themselves for my attack. They weren’t ready. I didn’t slow; instead I slammed into the closer of the two at a full sprint my not inconsiderable weight bowling him to the floor. I continued with my momentum rolling off of him to the side, right into the legs of his companion before either of them could recover. The other Sith taken off guard tripped over me and fell face first right on top of his comrade. I was already moving again, rolling back toward them. Dropping my right blade, I took the left in both hands raised up onto my knees and brought the Vibroblade down with all my strength driving it down through both men, the tip of the blade sticking into the deck plates.

They writhed on the ground for a moment as blood slowly pooled out around them. They made no sound at all, their helmets holding in their dying cries. I twisted the blade hard to the left exacerbating the wound before pulling it free. I left them where they lay, grabbed up my other blade and stood, to find the Republic soldier who had come to help, looking down at the two dead Sith with wide eyed astonishment.

Leaving the man to deal with his own shock I glanced around to find Trask in a fierce battle with two Sith of his own. He was obviously a skilled duelist but so were the Sith and they were pushing him back steadily toward the bulkhead. I could see him slowing under their combined onslaught, already flagging with fatigue. Without thinking I flung the sword in my right hand as hard as I could at the Sith closer to me.

I ran after it as fast as I could, legs pumping hard and adrenaline singing in my blood. I switched my remaining blade to my right hand, readying myself to strike the moment I was in range. I watched as the other Vibroblade hit its target, the flat of the blade slammed into the Sith’s left arm hard enough to knock him off balance and make him swerve into his partner. Surprise and confusion froze the two Sith for a moment, just long enough for Trask to break past the guard of the other Sith and drive his long sword into the man’s stomach, the shriek of metal piercing metal, barely audible above the sounds of battle. Then I was on the second Sith, I went into a back spin to help break my forward momentum, my sword held out at neck height. I felt a slight resistance then the sword slipped free of it’s target and I jerked it to a stop. The Sith stood stock still for a moment one hand up raised towards me, palm out as if asking me to stop. Then his helmet toppled off his shoulders to thunk down solidly against the deck, the now headless body fell twitching to the ground small gouts of blood spurting across the floor.

I bent to retrieve my discarded sword as Trask yanked his own free of the other Sith and let him slide down to the deck. He was panting with exertion. After taking a couple shaky steps forward, he stopped and leaned on his sword, the point stuck into the deck. 

Before us the bridge battle was waning, only the very best and the luckiest combatants still standing. All around them bodies littered the decking. Crimson pools of spreading blood covering most of the floor. Severed limbs and weapons scattered everywhere. 

Holo-dramas like to make out battles as long, drawn out, elegant things. Where the hero valiantly faces the villain in honorable combat and when one of them falls there is no blood and the body's of the dead look almost asleep, eyes closed and peaceful. 

That is not reality. Fights to the death only lasted a few seconds in my experience. In a normal fight if you made a mistake you got hurt, but usually kept going. In a fight to the death however, your first mistake was usually your last. Neither was battle a graceful thing, even skilled fighters often looked like nothing more than drunken brawlers. Smashing into each other tripping over corpses, then rolling around on the ground trying desperately to gain any advantage over their opponent. This left every corpse not only with wide staring eyes, but also with strange wounds as well, like bite marks, scratches and missing pieces; like an eye or an ear. The full helmets of the Sith troops didn’t help. In my mind's eye I could still see their eyes, wide and staring behind their visors. The scent of blood and excrement filled the air. Not something usually mentioned in the Holo’s. The dead always shit themselves.

We watched the last few men fight over near the starboard exit off the bridge. One of the Republic soldiers slipped in the blood at his feet and fell forward right onto the Vibroblade of the Sith in front of him. The Sith jerked with surprise and backpedaled trying to get away from the corpse falling toward him. He tripped over the corpse of a republic soldier and fell backward. He landed hard on the back of his neck, hitting a kick plate at the base of a console. I could hear the sickening crunch of bone clearly as his neck broke. I wondered idly if the man would have been pleased that he took one more Sith with him to the grave after he died? The Sith lay dead, his victims face in his groin a disturbing parody of lovers.

War and battle are many things but one thing they most certainly are not, is elegant.

With the crunch of the Sith’s neck I realized that I could hear clearly. The sirens had stopped. I had no idea if that was good or bad, but one way or another we needed to move. Besides the blond still fighting the Sith, there were no other Jedi alive or dead on the bridge so I was going to assume that Bastila and the rest of the Jedi had evacuated. 

Deciding that my only real option was to escape and hope Bastila had as well, I ran back to the port side bridge hatch, flicking blood off my Vibroblades as I ran. Sliding to a stop at the gear bags I sheathed my swords, shoved my blaster rifle into one of the bags. Slung them up over my shoulders, tightened the straps and ran back to Trask. Grabbing his arm, I pulled him stumbling after me, while he tried to sheath his own sword.

Still dragging Trask stumbling behind me, I headed for the starboard bridge hatch. By that time only two men were left standing. Both Republic soldiers, they were leaning against consoles panting open mouthed watching the Jedi Knight and the Sith warrior, still battling with seemingly endless energy. Sabers flashing through the air so fast that they appeared to be nothing but streaks of light zipping back and forth with incredible speed meeting with such force that sparks went spraying off over the floor. 

Just as we made it to the port hatchway I felt a cold shiver of fear run down my spine. Acting on an instinct I couldn’t understand, I wrapped one arm around Trask’s chest and dove to the floor next to one of the console swivel chairs. Ignoring his startled ‘yelp’ of surprise I clutched it’s solid base with my free arm and glanced back to the Jedi and Sith by the main view port just as they, by unspoken agreement, jumped apart and ran for the exits. They only made it two steps before the world exploded.

A blinding flash of light like a miniature sun appeared outside the main view port. An explosion rocked the bridge, it was so loud and jarring I thought the whole ship must surely be blown apart. Then wind was rushing by us like a hurricane threatening to dislodge my grip on the chair.  _ It’s more than a little weird that I just had a dream about something very similar to this.  _ I thought, holding onto the chair’s base with the desperate strength of the damned. I glanced over to my other side. Somehow I had managed to keep a hold of Trask as well. I wasn’t sure but I thought I could hear him screaming. 

The two surviving Republic troopers had been sucked out into space at once. Smashing into consoles and screens on the way. But the Jedi and the Sith were standing in the middle of the bridge bent over in a sprinter's stance. I watched in slack jawed amazement as they started to walk forward, their robes whipping back and forth wildly, in the hurricane force of the atmosphere being sucked past them into space. Incredibly they made slow progress forward. Looking for all the world to be in some kind of fantastical time dilation effect. Bent forward with the exaggerated movement of slow motion sprinting yet with their robes whipping around them crazily as if moving at incredible speed. The effect was one of unreality brought into stark relief against the life and death stakes of the situation. But then a secondary explosion erupted next to the Sith. This was apparently too much and he was yanked off of his feet flying back flipping end over vainly grabbing at everything he passed, before smashing into a number of consoles that seemed to stun him for just an instant. As he went past the edge of the view port however he regained his senses and spun to face the Jedi still moving toward us slowly one step at a time. 

Everything seemed to slow, events moving at only a fraction of normal. In that moment I could see everything. The Sith’s face, twisted with rage and fear, dotted with perspiration. A very handsome, black haired man with startling bright hazel eyes that seemed almost to glow with malevolence. Olive skin gleaming against the glare from the tiny sliver of the sun shining in the corner of the view port. He reached out a hand to the Jedi with exquisite slowness before making a fist and yanking it back with a triumphant gleam in those hate filled eyes. 

The Jedi was startlingly beautiful, petite, pale skinned with high cheekbones and a long straight nose. Waist length honey blond hair whipping back and forth in the wind. Light blue almost silvery eyes, looking straight back into mine. The look on her face went from one of intense concentration, to surprise followed quickly by a small peaceful smile as her eyes closed.

Then she was falling backward towards the gaping black maw of endless space. Unlike the Sith who had grabbed for everything he passed in a vain effort to save himself, she held her arms tight at her side, lightsaber hilt glinting silver in her hand as she flew back. She reminded me of a missile, heading for a target with single minded grace and purpose.  _ What a waste! No wonder the Sith are winning, if the Jedi all meet death with such easy acceptance.  _ I thought to myself feeling a wave of deep sadness at the injustice of it.

Just as she passed the rim of the view port, the ship's emergency life support panels activated slamming down over the gaping hole into space and catching the Jedi just behind the shoulder blades. The wind stopped rushing abruptly leaving only a high pitched whistling noise in its wake. 

Slowly I unwrapped my arm from around the chair base then let go of Trask, ears ringing terribly in the sudden silence. Getting to my feet slowly, feeling shaky, my arms burning terribly from the strain of holding my own weight, as well as Trask’s against the gale. Trask slowly sat up gasping and shaking from shock and terror. 

On wobbly legs I walked slowly to the body of the Jedi. She was quite dead, the emergency panels had cut cleanly through her torso. Everything below her breasts, laying on the deck at my feet oozing blood. Her severed right hand still held her intricately designed silver and gold Saber hilt. I bent down on a reflex and picked up the lightsaber. Gently pulling it free of her still disturbingly warm yet lifeless fingers. It was made of a silvery metal with golden filigree wrapping around the hilt in an intricate and delicate pattern of veins and leaves.  _ If you had just the smallest will to live… Half a second and you would have survived!  _ The thought filled me with a burning, frustrated anger at the injustice of it. But more than that it was her weak willed acceptance that truly burned in my gut. Making me feel almost light headed for a moment with its intensity. Startled by the intensity of my emotions, I slipped the Saber hilt into a pocket on my thigh, turned away from the corpse and walked back to Trask trying to push down the unreasonable anger.  _ People die everyday and I didn’t even know her, why am I so upset?  _

“What were you doing?” he asked, obviously still shaken as I helped him to his feet.

“Paying my respects.” I said flatly my voice sounding strange to my own ears, the effect being made worse by the slight distortion of my helmet speakers. Grabbing his forearm I pulled him along after me. “Bastila isn’t here and I don’t see any Jedi corpses, she’s either been captured, or she made it to the escape pods. Either way it’s time for us to go.”

“You won’t hear any arguments from me, that's what I wanted to do in the first place.” He said as I pulled him out the starboard hatch and down the corridor to the first junction. 

Turning left I hit the hatch release on the wall and waited. A loud clunking sound mocked me from within the inner workings of the bulkhead, but otherwise nothing happened. I sighed, the feeling of frustrated anger blooming up in my chest again.  _ This really just is not my day.  _ I pulled the interface cable from my wrist comp and plugged it into the socket just below the hatch release. I then spent a few tense seconds looking for the override command, my blood pounding in my ears and a feeling of increasing urgency building up inside me. 

By the time I found the command I was so wound up that I slammed my finger down on it and almost cracked the screen of my wrist comp. Another loud clunking noise followed by an unnerving grinding noise and the hatch cycled, sliding slowly open.

At the same time a hatch to our right slid open to reveal a tall bald man in full black battle armor, with a grey pallor to his skin and tattoos on his scalp. He smiled exposing sharpened canine teeth and ignited the saber staff in his hand, the dual blood red blades sliding out as he spun it lazily around himself advancing on us.

I grabbed Trask and yanked on his arm trying to pull him after me through the hatchway. But Trask resisted with surprising strength. He jerked his arm free and drew his sword with a grim smile.

“Trask don’t be stupid we can’t fight him we need to go!” I said my voice booming out of my helmet speakers loud and tinny in the corridor.

“I know,” he said, smiling sadly, “Get to the escape pods. Live to fight another day.” With that he pivoted slightly and straight kicked me in the chest hard enough to send me stumbling back several feet. Before I could run forward though, he drew his heavy blaster and shot the door controls. The last thing I saw of Trask Ulgo was his sad smile as the hatch slammed shut with a loud grinding ‘Bang!’

“Damn it Trask we could have made it. Bastard, I didn’t ask you to do that!” I growled the fury and unexpected feeling of loss almost choking me for a moment. With a vicious curse I slammed my fist into the bulkhead, then turned and ran down the corridor heading to the escape pods.

The corridor curved at a 90 degree angle, as I rounded the bend I ran smack into four Sith troopers standing about, weapons at rest against their shoulders. I didn’t slow, drawing a blaster with one hand and a Vibroblade with the other, I bellowed a wordless war cry of rage, the sound echoing down the corridor with tremendous volume. I fell on them, blind fury driving me to destroy these monsters, utterly and completely. The first two were so startled by my appearance and the volume of my helmet speakers that they froze solid. I cut them down barely breaking stride. A third man yelped in fear and turned to run. He went down with a couple quick shots to the back slamming into the deck blaster rifle spinning away, as he slid down the corridor carried by his momentum. The fourth pulled a blade and swung hard for my neck. I blocked the strike with my own blade then put two quick shots into his left knee. As he fell clutching at the wound and screeching in agony, I whipped my Vibroblade forward and sunk it deep through his neck the point gleaming a bright vibrant red, as it exited out through his spinal column. 

As I yanked my blade free of the last man’s throat my wrist comp buzzed loudly. The icon for an incoming communication flashing on the small screen. I whipped my sword down quickly, most of the blood sliding off and spattering to the deck at my feet, slipped it back into its scabbard and punched the icon. A small face appeared on the screen. A brown haired, brown eyed man in his mid thirties blinked at me with a look of surprised relief plain on his face.

“Soldier are you a member of the Endar Spire’s crew?” the little man asked his voice coming through loud and clear in my helmet speakers.

“Sergeant Rorick Jager, Republic special forces, and you are sir?” I responded as I started moving down the corridor again.

“Lieutenant Carth Onasi, Republic Navy, how close are you to the escape pods?” 

“In the corridor just outside the Evac station.” said coming up on the hatch to the Evac station as I spoke.

“There are two Sith heavy’s in the station and six in escape pod block Alpha.” he said typing into the station console he was using.

“I’ll be there shortly.” I said and smacked the hatch release both blasters drawn and ready.

The hatch slid back with the customary ‘chunking’ noise and I stepped in firing quickly putting four shots into both men before they had even raised their weapons. I stepped over their bodies and walked toward the next door before an idea struck me and I paused. Glancing over to a maintenance terminal in the corner of the room a cruel smile spread across my face.

Moving quickly I stepped over to the terminal and connected it to my wrist comp. It only took me a few moments to find what I was looking for, a low wattage power coupling. Once I found it I went about rerouting all that power from that section of the ship. When it was ready I executed the command. Instantly hundreds of kilowatts surged into the tiny circuit on the other side of the hatch, the circuit I chose was only designed to power the life support systems, less than a kilowatt in total. The sudden overload flash fried the casing around the circuit and the surrounding conduits. Everything in the room besides the security systems shut down, in the sudden darkness the Sith only had half a second, not even enough time to realize something was wrong. Arcs of bright white electricity exploded from the wall, jumping from one trooper to the next. Their armor acted like a conduction oven, super heating and boiling the men in their suits while the armor itself became red hot and started to melt. When the emergency cut offs activated five seconds after the first arc broke through containment, only half melted and charred remains were left in the room. 

I watched this happen through the security cam feed, a dull feeling of satisfaction slowly blooming in my gut. Once the electricity abated I opened the hatch with a command from my wrist comp and quickly moved through the room stepping over the corpses and heading to the far hatchway that opened to Escape Pod Block. Just as I reached the hatch it slid open to reveal Carth standing blaster in hand watching me warily. 

He looked me up and down taking in my Mandalorian armor and weapons, before focusing in on the large duffles slung over each shoulder his eyebrows rose but when he opened his mouth he didn’t mention them.

“We need to go. More Sith are on the way and I have the main computer set to scuttle the ship as soon as we launch, everyone else is gone already.” he said heading back down the line of pod berths to the last one in line.

“Did Bastila make it off the ship?” I asked, clambered into the tiny pod and bumping into every surface on the way to one of the seats. Catching my bags on something, I yanked them loose and sat down in the first chair I came to. I strapped myself in, the bags still on my back. Waiting patiently for Carth to get up front into the pilot's chair.

“Yes she was among the first to be evacuated.” he said, climbing in after me with considerably more grace and slid past quickly making his way to the front of the pod. He slipped into the pilots chair and started flicking switches and pressing buttons with one hand, while getting himself strapped in with the other. His movements were quick, sure and confident. He obviously knew what he was doing, so I settled into my seat and relaxed waiting. 

Satisfied, I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling the little pod come to life around me. Small vibrations shivered through me as its engine powered up. Then suddenly a terrific force slammed me back into my seat like a Ronto had just sat on my chest. Black spots swam before my eyes and the last thing I saw was the vast blue and grey disc of Taris sliding across the main view port. Then with a feeling like relief I fell gratefully into the blackness.


	2. Crash

Chapter 2

Crash

  
  
  


Carth Onasi punched the primary emergency launch release on the instrument panel in front of him. Silent alarms were flashing red all across the various screens and readouts. _Maybe_ _I shouldn’t have waited for this guy._ He thought to himself feeling guilty as soon as it crossed his mind. _No, I have never left a man behind and I’m not about to start now. Even if the guy makes me uneasy._

__ Then the pod's main engine ignited slamming him back against his seat, black spots played across his vision for a few seconds before clearing slowly. He looked down at the instrument panel, watching the countdown of the Spire’s self destruct in the top right hand corner of the primary display panel.

“Brace yourself back there it’s going to be rough.” he shouted back to the Sergeant when the count down hit ten seconds, trying to make himself heard over the noise of the escape pod. The Endar Spire exploded with the force of a nuke. They were less than two hundred kilometers away from the Ship when it detonated.

The shock wave smashed into the little pod with enough force to instantly collapse its weak environmental shields and slam it on it’s side, before starting a slow spin. The blast increased their decent velocity by a little more than double the recommended speed for an atmospheric entry. The battle had also forced the Endar Spire closer to the planet's atmosphere than he had originally thought. They were already through the planet's Exosphere and the friction of the Thermosphere was causing the tiny pod to heat up at an alarming rate. Flames almost instantly covered the transparisteel view port leaving him completely blind, unable to see anything beyond the writhing inferno. His hands flew over the vibrating control panel trying desperately to stop the slow spin the explosion had forced them into. 

After almost a minute of watching the temperature gauge climb higher and higher toward critical failure. Along with flames getting more and more violent outside the viewport, he gave up with the automated course corrections and slammed his hand down on the Manual control release. Yanking the stick out from under the dash, he lifted it up and locked it into place, desperately fighting the slow deadly spin and hand numbing vibrations coming through the stick. 

Another minute and he had actually succeeded in leveling them out. Finally getting the pod steady. The only problem now was speed. They had slowed a lot during the spin. But they were still heading down at, one hundred sixty seven percent of safe velocity. What's more, the pod was heating rapidly, slamming down through the Thermosphere sideways causing a dangerous heat build up, if he didn’t do something soon the pod would shortly begin to warp and melt. 

He didn’t have any choice; he had to decrease the friction. Grinding his teeth with determination Carth tipped the nose down just a few degrees. Their speed picked up immediately but the hull temperature stabilized. He sighed with relief and smiled.

“Good girl you can get us down there, you just got to work with me.” he said, activating the reverse thrusters at five percent to start gradually slowing their descent. The mildly vibrating stick instantly became an angry writhing snake in his hand. He grabbed on with his other hand to avoid losing it altogether and fought the tiny pod for control as they shook and rattled their way through the last of the Thermosphere.

“Okay now what did I just say, huh? Just work with me now girl and we’ll all get out of this in one piece.” It was the wrong thing to say. The moment the words left his mouth, the shaking became so bad he thought he might lose a few teeth. The stick jumped around with such force in his grip that his knuckles slammed into the control panel painfully, over and over again. 

‘CLANG!’ the sound came from below Carth’s feet and he looked down at the floor gaping.

“No! No! No! Don’t you dare!” he yelled out loud at the escaped pod, as the deafening ‘CLANG!’ rang through the hull again. He quickly tipped the nose down another couple of degrees trying to reduce the drag, while at the same time turning up the reverse thrusters to fifteen percent. The shaking got even worse but their air speed and temperature did drop slightly and he smiled feeling triumphant.

“That’s it, hold together for just a few more minutes. I know you can do it...!” he was cut off abruptly when he heard the ‘CLANG!’ Louder than before and followed shortly by an ominous ‘THUD!’ A shrill tearing sound, another softer ‘thud’ and a large object of unknown purpose and importance flashed past the view port with a subdued “Clanging” noise as it smashed into the top of the pod on it’s way to lonely freedom.

For a moment nothing happened, they were still headed down. The pod was still shaking badly, but their speed was steady and the temperature was dropping slowly. He wasn’t fooled, he waited, holding his breath, trying to figure out what piece of vital equipment just abandoned him in his hour of need. 

Then almost every screen on the instrument panel flashed with warning lights and the pod slewed sharply to the side. Alarms shrieked as the temperature started climbing again and shaking intensified to the point he could barely see the readouts at all. The violent bucking of the pod slammed him back and forth against his crash webbing.

There were moments in life where the probability of survival was slim to none, he found through long experience that there was really only one thing to say in such moments.

“Shit.”

He slammed his hand down on the emergency flaps and fought slewing with all his skill and experience, desperately trying to slow them down and keep them steady. Just a few more minutes, he just needed another few minutes then they would be down. He kept his mouth shut however. Afraid if he said anything else, the damn pod would crumble to dust just to spite him.

The moment the flaps opened the pod jerked and shuddered so hard, he thought they had been ripped from the hull. But the screen in front of him said that they were still attached, though two of them were damaged and unable to be moved from their fully extended position. Despite that, their desperate free fall slowed and steadied. The temperature of the hull dropped rapidly and the flames covering the view port receded. 

Beyond the transparisteel he could see the vast city world sprawling below. Hundreds of colossal supertowers poking up above the spotty cloud layer. Every one of them had a softly curved peak reminding him of gigantic loaves of bread. They glittered silver and gold in the evening light and he could see why this place had once been called ‘The Coruscant of the outer rim.’ Combined with the setting sun in the far distance glowing a soft red-gold and the vast ocean to the west shining with a deep amber light, the sight took his breath away.

For what felt like a long time he just sat and watched as the city swelled up in the viewport, a strange feeling of calm flowing over him. The moment passed however and he was very aware of the aforementioned massive sky towers becoming quite large in his view port. He adjusted their course aiming for one of the upper city Pedwalks. Setting the reverse thrusters to maximum Carth brought them down as carefully as he could.

They smashed into the Pedestrian Walkway hard enough to throw him forward and smack his face into the console. The harness no doubt left bruises across his chest from the massive force. They slid forward a good one hundred and fifty meters, grinding a shallow trough through the duracrete of the pedwalk. Pedestrians screamed and leaped out of the way. Some of them clutching strange feathery ‘dog-bird’ looking animals as they flashed past.

When they finally ground to a stop, ears ringing and sore in places he hadn’t felt in a long time. He couldn’t bring himself to move right away, he sat there panting with both fatigue and shock. Carth could feel hot blood dripping over his upper lip and down his chin. He wondered idly if his nose was broken as he tried to hit the release on the safety harness. His hands were shaking so badly that it took him three tries to finally get it. The pod was tilted up on the nose and he slid forward boneless and collapsed against the console.

He lay there for a moment trying to catch his breath and steady himself, dimly he wondered if his passenger was still alive. With a sense of unreality he realized that sergeant Jager hadn’t made a sound the whole trip down. He could have been injured in the fighting on board the Endar Spire and just been too hopped up on adrenaline to notice. If he had been losing blood this whole time then he could very possibly be dead already.

Concern for a fellow soldier finally got him moving, he turned slowly and struggled his way back toward the man, the tilted deck beneath him forcing Carth to half walk, half pull himself forward, using anything he could get a grip on. 

The man was only a couple inches taller than Carth himself, but more thickly built and very heavy. Large arms and shoulders bulged under his combat armor. Carth tried to shift him back and forth looking for wounds but it was hard to tell in the red emergency lights of the escape pod. Black blood splattered the man quite heavily but it was hard to tell if any of it was his. 

After a minute of examining the Sergeant, Carth finally noticed detail in the sergeant’s armor and blinked in surprise for a moment. It was Mandalorian battle armor, the suit alone was probably worth more than Carth made in half a decade on a lieutenant’s salary. More important than it’s price however was the fact that it was made of pure Beskar, one of the strongest and most energy resistant metals in the galaxy. The stuff could stop lightsabers, unless the man was hit by a speeder at high speed or fell off a cliff he would probably live. The stuff was only produced by the Mandalorians, and getting your hands on a set usually involved killing its former owner. Carth just stared down that the man, trying to think of a way that a republic trooper, special ops or not, could have ended up with it. His weapons were of equally fine quality, Mandalorian heavy blasters and matching Mando carbine rifle. All three looked modified and could have put holes in the hull of the escape pod. Whereas his own modified Blastech E-55’s would have been lucky to leave a scorch mark. He didn’t know the man personally, their brief words before entering the escape pod were the first they ever exchanged. It made him nervous, all he knew of the man was that he came on board with the Jedi, nothing else had been shared with the crew. From the fact that he was assisting the Jedi and the extremely high quality of his equipment, Carth knew he had to be important somehow. Definitely skilled and dangerous, probably involved in the type of missions that the Republic would never admit sanctioning. The man made him very nervous. Just the idea of him obtaining his gear from the corpses of their former owner was enough. But he was also involved in something secret enough that not even the Captain of the Spire was given a complete briefing on their mission. The whole situation bothered him, he hated not knowing the whole picture. 

A siren broke him out of his contemplation abruptly, it was soft and a long way off, but he could hear it. The Sith knew where they were, and they were coming. Bracing himself with one hand he reached forward and shook the man’s shoulder trying to rouse him, nothing. Carth tried again shaking harder. The Sergeant was completely limp. Concerned that the man was in fact dead, he checked for a pulse at the man’s neck where a gap between his helmet and chest armor was only protected by a heavy synthetic fabric. Feeling a slow even pulse he narrowed his eyes in confusion and drew one of his blasters. He smacked the butt down on the man’s helmet, once, twice, three times. Not even a twitch.

Giving up, Carth sighed deeply and holstered his blaster. Grumbling in irritation he moved past the comatose soldier pulling himself up to the hatch at the back of the escape pod. He braced himself, hit the hatch release and pushed it open, grunting with the effort. He found himself looking out at a mostly deserted Pedwalk. Only the bravest of souls had stayed to see what was happening. The rest had bolted for the nearby buildings in search of shelter from whatever Sith retribution was no doubt about to befall the area.

Of the half dozen people that had stayed only one looked to be of any use. A tall straight backed human man in his late 50’s. Though he was obviously past his prime with almost completely silver hair he still had the posture of a soldier. Carth thought for a moment looking the man up and down wondering what he should do. Then with a deep breath to steady himself he made his decision and called out to the man.

“I’m Lieutenant Carth Onasi Republic Navy, I have an injured man here, will you help us?” He waited watching the man. If he was a former Republic soldier or officer, the man would most likely come help. But if he was from the Tarisian military or even worse a former Sith, it would have effectively doomed them both on the spot.

The man looked Carth over appraising him carefully for a long moment, all the while the siren in the distance was getting louder, making Carth’s blood run cold.

“Sergeant Collin Vakris Former Republic Marine Corps.” The man called back, before quickly jogging over and clambering up into the rear hatch of the pod with surprising speed and dexterity.

“Thank you Sergeant I appreciate your help.” Carth said leading the man back down to his unconscious companion.

“Don’t mention it Sir, what do we have here?” sergeant Vakris asked moving down and taking a position on the other side of the unconscious body.

“Not sure, I can’t find an obvious injury, but he’s completely unresponsive.” Carth replied, getting sergeant Jager under the left arm. Vakris just nodded and took the other arm without speaking.

Together they disengaged the harness and dragged him to the lip of the pod. Carth jumped down and took hold of his shoulders as Vakris gently slid him out. The dead weight of Jager was too much for Carth and he fell back landing hard on his backside, the soldier slumping peacefully on his legs undisturbed.

“You owe me big time for this bud!” Carth growled at him, his eyes watering from the pain in his tailbone. 

Vakris dropped down after Jager’s limp body. Bending down he took Carth’s hand and helped him out from under the surprising amount of dead weight. Carth immediately grabbed at one of the straps over Jager’s shoulders trying to get the extra weight off so they could carry him faster. Vakris intervened on behalf of the gear bags however. Smacking his hand away.

“No time for that Sir we need to move now!” With such an eloquent defense Carth had no choice but to leave the bags where they were and take the other arm. Alternating brutal yanks and sluggish pulling, they made it inside the nearest supertower just as the imperial speeders came into sight. Carth grumbling increasingly vulgar expletives the whole way. The sleek silver metal of the Sith speeders shone in the last of the evening light, as they spotted the crash site and zipped down toward it with dangerous speed.

Carth and the Sergeant paused a few steps inside the main doors panting with effort. The main curving hall they found themselves in was large and well lit with bright white lighting panels set into the ceiling every few meters. The walls were made of smooth, white duraplast. The whole place had an impersonal almost abandoned feel to it. Like the only reason everything was relatively clean was because no one had come through there in a long time. 

Vakris stretched, arching his back and looked back at Carth with a thoughtful expression. He tapped his bottom lip with his index finger for a long moment before seeming to make up his mind.

“You can’t stay with me, or anyone connected to the Republic. That’s the first thing the Sith will try.” he paused for another moment then a grin split his face. “I know what to do, help me with him.” he said leaning down and taking hold of a limp arm.

“And what’s that?” Carth asked following suit.

“We will hide you in plain sight.” Vakris said, giving Carth a satisfied smile.

They managed to get the unconscious man off the floor, each of them pulling one of his arms over their shoulders, they managed to move through the supertower at a slow plodding pace. Vakris led them through the tower and down two levels. They studiously ignored the stares of the passengers on the turbolift down. Carth had never felt more conspicuous in his life, with the eyes of four aliens on him and the unconscious sergeant in tens of thousands of credits worth of gear.

When the doors to the lower level finally opened the first thing he noticed was the smell, something sweet and spicy drifted to him in the air making his mouth water. How long had it been since he had eaten last? Other smells assailed him as well, sweat from a number of different species, numerous types of alcohol, and above it all that indefinable miasma of scents that just meant ‘People’.

After only a couple of steps three children came rushing past screeching at each other in glee. Two little Twi’lek girls both with dark green skin, and a human boy, none of them probably more than seven years old. They went rushing off down the hall making enough noise to wake the dead and trying their damnedest to kill each other. They punched, kicked and bit each other until the little boy, who was getting by far the worst of it screamed like a Banshee, plowing into the both of girls sending them all rolling to the ground. The tide turned against the little girls, they were faster then the little boy but he was much stronger and after just a few moments he had them both at his mercy. He sat astride one of the girls chest pinning her arms by her side while the other one he had around the stomach from behind. Carth couldn’t help but snort with laughter at their respective looks of utter triumph and furiously impotent rage. 

Vakris led them down the several meter wide curved hall in the opposite direction of the three little combatants. The sight of the boy sent a pang of loss through his chest, still his grin stayed in place. Though somewhat more subdued as he followed Vakris through the busy corridor. 

The hall was lined on either side by sets of double doors every few meters. Some of them were open revealing small apartments. A few of them were in pretty bad shape, grimy and disorganized, but most were well organised and clean, though simple and without much luxury. Some of them seemed to be small shops or tiny food vendors. Aliens of all shapes and sizes lined up shouting food orders at hassled cooks who stood behind huge Wok's. The smell of roasting meat saturated the air as they passed. Devaronians, Twi’leks, Rodians, Ithorians, Zabrak and a number of others. But as they walked he noticed that humans were rare, beside the little boy they passed, he only saw a handful among the mirriad aliens. 

Vakris paused to ask a couple of Devaronions something in a strange harsh tongue, while he spoke, Carth realised that Galactic Basic was also rare, he could only catch a few snatches of conversation around them, while the majority was unintelligible. He had heard of the ‘slums of Taris’, sections of the city where aliens were the only inhabitants, but he had no experience with the idea. Both the Republic military and his home world of Telos were egalitarian, he had very little experience with the concept of discrimination, and the thought of second class citizens was completely foreign to him. 

He didn’t say anything however, he was too exhausted to think about it right then. The man between them was heavy with armor and weapons not to mention the large bags still strapped to his back. Gods only knew what was in those. Though Carth had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably some sort of raw ore, or perhaps just bricks. He had fought a number of Sith making his way to the escape pods during the battle aboard the Endar Spire. That along with the nerve wracking flight down to the planet, if they didn’t find some place to rest soon, Vakris was going to be dragging them both along.

Fortunately Vakris took something small and metallic from one of them and nodded his thanks to the two men, turning he led them off down the corridor once more. After only another few meters he stopped by one of the sets of double doors on the outer wall. He placed the small object into a socket next to the doors, a soft ‘click’ sounded and they opened smoothly, sliding back into the walls.

Inside the apartment was small and spartan with no decorations to speak of. The north facing wall directly in front of them, consisted of floor to ceiling windows. A large view screen sat in front of them, with a plain dark blue-grey sofa placed in front of it. There was a table and four chairs in the left hand corner closest to the windows. A workbench sat across from the table pressed up against the east wall, tools lined up on its surface. But what completely captured Carths full attention were the bunks. Three sets of double bunks, sat against the west wall. Lined up headboard to foot board stretching the full length of the large square room. Military style and only just big enough for one person. In Carth’s exhausted mind they looked like the most wonderful things he had ever seen. It didn’t even matter that there wasn’t a refresher, as long as those bunks didn’t collapse on top of him he would be happy. 

_ Even if they did I probably wouldn’t notice until morning.  _ Carth thought with a sudden snort of slightly hysterical mirth. Wordlessly they moved the unconscious man over to the bunks to lay him down on his stomach. Vakris grabbed his legs and maneuvered them up onto the bed then together they pulled the packs off his shoulders and let them drop to the floor feeling heavy metal objects clank together inside them.  _ Better be something really good in there. _ Carth thought to himself as he collapsed down on the other bunk, exhausted. 

“I can’t stay.”

Carth looked at the older man with bleary eyes, while he dug in his jacket pocket.

“And I won’t be able to come back either.” he continued, pulling out a small silver card.

“No no I’m not going to take credits from you. Not after everything else you have done for us.” Carth reluctantly stood and motioned him to put the credit chit back in his pocket.

“Yes you will.” Vakris said with a look that would brook no argument. “I don’t need it, I have friends and family that can help me out. You have no one and nothing but an unconscious Spec Ops grunt and a couple bags full of weapons.” 

Carth wanted to argue, feeling terrible for even thinking about taking the money, but the sergeant was right. He also wanted to know how Vakris knew their unconscious friend was special forces. But if they were going to find Bastila and get off this planet without getting killed or captured they would need credits, probably a lot more than Vakris had to offer. Swallowing his pride and distaste he nodded.

“Thank you Sergeant.”

“You are welcome sir. And don’t worry about it I’ll be fine, just worry about taking care of yourselves.” he said handing over the chit. “You also might want to get him out of that armor and make sure he’s still alive.” Carth put the chit in his pocket and nodded.

“You’re probably right. I have never seen anyone like that who wasn’t either dead or close to it.” He looked over the big man laying on the bottom bunk closest to the table.  _ He’s probably dead, or dying. Damn I could have really used the help.  _ More than anything though Carth hated the idea of losing a man under his command. It never got any easier to watch fellow soldiers die. Especially when you were responsible for their lives.

“You both should be safe here. The Tarisian Security forces almost never come down here. The Sith will make it down here eventually but you should have a couple days at least before that happens.” Vakris said moving over to the east wall of the plain square apartment. The wall was curiously bare. Nothing even touched it but the workbench in the corner. 

Vakris touched a spot on the wall with quick motions, pointing out the refresher almost hidden behind a blank grey panel that slid silently back into the wall. A small standing shower, a toilet and a sink, moving on he pulled another panel straight out of the wall to reveal a single electric burner and a small sink. 

“That’s all there is to this place. A Rodian named Gludor owns this apartment, he lives a few doors down and he owes me a favor, so you should be fine for a while but not forever. Whatever you do, try to do it quickly.” 

“We will, thanks again Sergeant, you ah… you saved our lives.” Carth said, feeling fervent gratitude.

“Your welcome sir.” they shook hands again and Vakris turned to go, but then turned back remembering something. He handed Carth the small cylindrical key from his pocket and stepped to the door. 

“There is an outfitter just across the pedwalk from this building she might be willing to ‘Relieve’ you of some of those weapons.” he said, nodded once, then turned and was gone. 

Carth hoped that Vakris would be okay, though he was worried that both of them would end up regretting his help. But being a practical man, he pushed those worries away and focused on the immediate problem at hand. He needed to get the marine out of that armor and check him for injuries, he needed to get food, and possibly some sleep at some point, he had been about to go off his duty shift when the attack on the Spire came, so he had been awake for fourteen, very active and stressful, hours. Looking at the bunks with the type of longing one usually reserved for a new lover, Carth sighed and set about peeling the armor off his unconscious marine.

A few minutes later when Carth finally got the man stripped down, he covered the marine’s depressingly large package with a blanket from another bunk and checked the man over for obvious blood or broken bones. He had some first aid training, but he couldn’t find anything immediately obvious. He tried shaking the bigger man to rouse him, snapping his fingers in front of his nose, shouting the man’s name, nothing. He was still alive, he was breathing and the pulse in his neck was strong and steady, he seemed to be in a deep sleep. Carth had never seen anything like it before.

Sighing loudly and hanging his head, Carth gave the bunks a last longing look and headed out of the apartment to find someone with medical training.


	3. Taris

Chapter 3

Taris

  
  
Darkness pulled me down, drowning me in an endless blackness. The whole world was nothing but an endless darkness making it impossible to think or even to feel. Every once in a while though a flash of light would come, almost blinding in its intensity. When the light came for just the briefest of moments I could see flashes of the world around me. A cramped, red cockpit shrieking and shuddering, falling back onto something hard and painful. I managed to open my eyes and saw a sliver of blue sky past my helmet’s visor and a massive red-gold tower. I heard voices and felt hands grabbing at me, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. It felt like the voices were coming from a long way off. The darkness pulled me back down before I could give it anymore thought.

Time ceased to exist, it could have been a second or a week when bright lights flashed through the darkness again. The high pitched sound of screeching children in the distance. A minute or a year after that, the smell of meat roasting tickled my nose and the sound of voices pounded into my ears. I retreated back gratefully into the blackness escaping the noise.

Then everything was peaceful. I was laying on something soft, a single lucid thought broke through. _What happened to my armor?_ Then I was falling back again, the darkness flowing over me.

At some point I started dreaming, just flashes at first, bright flashes of colored light. Slowly over time they became more recognizable, eventually becoming bright vivid landscapes that felt much more real than a dream. Great plains of tall green grass stretching away forever. A dark forest with massive trees that seemed to go up and up reaching into the heavens. The depths of an endless ocean, dark water pressing in around me, with a massive sleek shadow sliding effortlessly through the dark water in the distance. A desert landscape, bright sand reflecting the light of a huge yellow sun. A barren valley with huge stone pillars; black as night stretching up hundreds of feet like the skeletal fingers of dead giants desperate to escape the red sands of their grave. Dozens more flashed past so quickly that I only spotted an image here or there: A war torn landscape piled with corpses; A blazing red star, Then everything went black again and I was free, relaxed and at peace. 

Slowly, I floated forward toward something. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I somehow knew that it was important. Instinctively I shied away from it, for some primal reason I did not want to see what was coming. The blackness started to clear around me like smoke fading away on the breeze. 

I was floating above the massive bridge again watching the battle between Bastila and the monster all in black. As they flashed back and forth across the bridge, I couldn’t help but wonder why I was seeing this again. I didn’t much like seeing it the first time. The fight played out the same as before. This time when the explosion rocked the bridge I was unaffected, floating peacefully watching with a sense of detachment. The detachment faded however when Bastila walked over to the man in black robes. Laying still, a large piece of charred metal protruding from his back, just under his right shoulder blade. The jagged edges sharp and deadly, the few spots untouched by char gleamed dully in the flickering light of the bridge. I watched the blood seep out around the metal soaking into his robes with a feeling similar to panic starting to form inside me. 

_Don’t turn him over, just let him die!_ I screamed silently at the young Jedi. She didn’t hear me of course, instead she slowly reached down to feel for a pulse at the man’s neck. Her eyes sprang wide and she carefully rolled him over onto his left side. The man's robes were almost untouched, long and menacing, with intricate red and purple patterns that seemed to somehow move when looked at too closely. Even unconscious he seemed liable to jump up and break the young woman’s neck for daring to touch him. She seemed to feel the same way, because her hands were shaking as she reached out toward the mask. She hesitated just a few inches away looking down on him. Her features twisted into a mask of anger, sympathy and guilt. Tears shone in her eyes, her hands outstretched as though she were waiting for him to sit up and embrace her. She closed her eyes, took a few slow deep breaths, then opened them and tried again, hands steady and eyes dry. Her long delicate fingers slipped beneath his hood and back behind his head, pulling at something I couldn’t see.

_No, don't do it!_ I yelled soundlessly, trying desperately to reach out and stop her, to pull her away from him. But my arms wouldn’t move. They hung limply at my sides a feeling of dread and powerlessness had me around the throat choking me. It was so intense I thought I would’ve passed out if that were possible. _Stop! Leave him be, don't take that off!_ I screamed, again to no effect. 

Whatever she was pulling on gave way with a soft click and she pulled it away. Beneath the mask was blackness, the infinite blackness of space, staring out at me from the depths were a pair of green eyes very much like my own. As I watched, the darkness flowed out of the robes, growing into a massive cloud. It engulfed Bastila, her lithe figure and light brown hair disappearing into the endless night. It grew and grew, the eyes growing with it, gradually turning a bright yellow until they looked like twin suns shining out of the void. It started toward me. Slowly at first making no sound. I screamed and tried desperately to get away but all of a sudden I was standing naked on the deck my feet sunk into the floor, the durasteel plates molded over them holding me fast. I jerked and squirmed and screamed as the void came ever closer. Centimeter by centimeter with agonizing slowness, it crept forward savoring my fear and desperation. The bright yellow eyes shone out at me, the burning gaze seeing right through me, to examine my soul; It found me wanting. The eyes smoldered with contempt and deepening to orange, then red and burst into flame. The nebulous obsidian smoke surged forward consuming them. It flew forward engulfing me with terrible speed. My screams were smothered as the smoke filled my mouth and nose like burning water. Searing my throat and lungs as though I had inhaled fire. My lungs spasmed violently desperate for air, instead only sucking in more fire. Everything was burning pain, terror and impotent rage for what seemed like forever. Coughing hard enough to shake my whole body I flailed blindly against the darkness, completely certain it would soon kill me. 

Then it was gone. I stood alone on the bridge, Bastila, the corpses, and all evidence of the battle were gone, leaving the bridge looking cold, pristine and utilitarian. A feeling of intense relief flooded over me and I started shaking. Bringing a hand up a hand I tried to wipe my forehead. But it wasn’t skin I touched, it was metal. My eyes snapped open and I stared down at my hand in shock, it was gloved in black. I reached up and tried to feel my face again but encountered the same metal, covering me from forehead to chin. I spun to look at my reflection in the bridge's massive view port, feeling the weight of heavy robes spinning with me. There in the viewport, gloved hands reaching up to touch the black and red mask of the monster that haunted this nightmare. My whole body trembled with shock, terror and revulsion. As I watched, the hands came up and pulled the mask free. It fell to the floor with a loud ‘Thud’ hitting the deck with such an unnatural weight that it dented the durasteel plates. I stood there looking at a pale rictus mask of my own face twisted with rage and hatred, yellow eyes almost glowing in the dim light. It’s mouth turned up into something that should have been a grin. Instead it made my blood turn to ice as a single word echoed through my mind. “ _Revan_ .”… _._

My eyes popped open and I saw a brown haired face hovering over mine, hands were gripping my shoulders shaking me roughly. Without thinking I sat bolt upright and slammed my fist forward with all my strength catching the man right in the nose as he jerked away from my abrupt movement. The feeling of cartilage crunching under my fist was immensely satisfying. 

“Son of a Bitch!” he yelled, clutching at his nose as he lost his balance falling backward. 

I leapt out of the bunk, fear and anger urging me to fight, to kill the threat. As he fell one hand shot down to a holster on his hip with blazing speed and whipped up a blaster before he even hit the floor. He landed with a loud ‘thud’ flat on his back. Air whooshed out of him with the impact but the blaster in his hand barely wavered and inch, pointed straight at my center mass. I had already dropped into a crouch ready to spring into deadly motion.

Everything was completely still for a dozen frozen heart beats as we eyed each other suspiciously, Our ragged breathing the only sounds to break the stillness. As the adrenaline started to wear off, my mind cleared and I remembered the man in front of me from the Endar Spire.

“Carth.” I gasped out past a sore and parched throat. “Sorry about that. You um,” I coughed trying to clear my throat, to little effect. “You startled me. Did I break your nose?” Carth eyed me suspiciously for another few seconds. Then making up his mind he holstered the blaster and got to his feet still holding his nose.

“Yeah, it sure as hell feels like it.” he said, voice muffled by his hand. Blood started pouring down his face in earnest now that he was upright, dripping down to land both on his shirt and the carpet.

I straightened up, relaxing my stance as he made his way to a small table in the corner. I was sweating, rivulets running down my back and under my arms like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head. I took a step back and sank down onto my bunk as Carth started pulling items out of a bag that was sitting on the floor next to the table. 

I looked down at myself and took stock of my physical condition. First, I was naked. Next I was thirsty and my throat was dry and raw. But more importantly than anything else at the moment; I needed to piss, like right that second. 

“Hey Carth, I don’t mean to be indelicate. But ah, do we have a refresher?” I asked, glancing around the room desperately. 

“Yeah over there behind the panel just push it then slide it back.” I was already heading over as he waved at the opposite wall. Once I got closer I noticed that a two meter high section of the wall bulged out slightly. Reaching out I pushed against the panel and it slid back disappearing into the wall with the softest ‘hiss’ of plastoid sliding against metal. I made it just in time and stood there for what felt like half an hour. The sense of pleasure and relief followed closely by an aching pain that went from mid stomach to groin as my stretched bladder deflated. _Gods I was really about to burst there. How long have I been out?_

I flushed, washed my face and neck, combed my hair back away from my face with my fingers, then went out into the apartment. Naked and dripping water onto the short carpet. Carth sat at the small table in the far corner carefully applying a Kolto patch across his nose. I moved over to the bunks and bent to check the bags I had brought from the Endar Spire. Plenty of weapons, grenades, Sith standard personal defense fields yet no clothes. 

“I am really sorry about your nose.” I said, straightening up and trying my damnedest to keep from covering myself. 

Without a word he reached down into a small bag at his feet. He pulled out a pair of dark pants and threw them to me. They flew at me with some speed unfolding as they went, finally hitting me square in the chest. Without bothering to look at them or ask if he had any underclothes in the bag, he did seem rather distracted with his nose after all, I yanked them on quickly, instantly feeling a bit more at ease. The pants, whatever they were made of, felt good against my skin, soft and reassuring. It’s difficult not to feel ill at ease when you're standing naked in front of someone you hardly know. I leaned quietly against one of the bunks, silently observing.

Carth was sitting down at the table, gently probing his nose over the Kolto patch. I watched him, wondering idly if he would try to set it himself. 

He was a handsome man with angular bold features. Brown eyes looked thoughtfully into the middle distance from beneath dark brows. Deep concentration etched lines through brows and at the corners of his mouth. He was of average height, broad shouldered with muscular arms and a narrow waist. He had a classic soldier's body. He was a bit thinner and shorter than I was. But lean and toned obviously kept in very good shape but focusing more on endurance rather than strength. A tight grey under shirt, now spotted with blood, stretched over his torso outlining the muscles of stomach and chest. Leaving no doubt that this man was not just a pilot, but a soldier as well. _A man always prepared, in both body and mind. Whether it be in space, ship to ship. Or on the ground in the mud and the blood._ I thought to myself studying him closely. He also wore black utility pants covered in pockets. The same as the ones he gave me, and standard issue combat boots made of serviceable black leather. Twin holsters hung from his hips, holding a modified Blastech E-55 Blaster Pistols. Everything useful and utilitarian, if he didn’t need it then it didn’t matter.

I was snapped out of my contemplation, as Carth took a few deep breaths, grabbed his nose over the Kolto patch and yanked down, in one quick hard jerk. I heard the cartilage crunch as it fit back into place and winced in sympathy. He sucked in a quick breath through gritted teeth but made no other sound. I was impressed, setting a broken nose hurt five times worse than actually breaking it in the first place. His eyes were watering badly, tears ran down his cheeks in a constant trickle that plopped softly against the table top. That’s the worst thing about a broken nose it makes your eyes water so bad you can’t see a thing. He took another couple deep breaths as he taped down the Kolto patch with a few strips of Tegaderm Film.

“Thanks for the pants.” I said taking a seat across from him at the table.

“You’re welcome.” he said, looking me over for a moment before bending down to grab a bag up off the floor. Digging around in it for a second he came out with a shirt.

“Don’t worry about the nose. I have woken up soldiers before. Hell, I have come up swinging a couple times myself. You were just a bit faster than I expected.” he said holding the shirt out to me. I nodded my thanks and took it from him.

“You thirsty?” he asked, already getting to his feet.

“Yes very.” I replied before pulling it on over my sweat dampened hair. 

He got up and walked over to the wall directly across from me. Standing next to the door for the refresher, He reached up and slid back an almost invisible panel in the grey wall, at about chest height. Inside I could see my armor and personal weapons stacked neatly inside. It was a large storage compartment about a meter high, by a meter and a half wide and maybe a meter deep. Now that I wasn’t distracted I took a careful look at the rest of the wall. They weren’t easy to spot, being the exact same neutral grey as the rest of the wall, but I could make out at least another two dozen similar panels. Ranging in size from about fifteen by thirty centimeters, all the way up to two meters tall and a meter and a half wide.

“I figured you would probably like to know where your gear was.” he said sliding the panel closed with a soft ‘click’.

“Yes, thank you, I was wondering.” I paused for a moment, Feeling very interested in the answer to my next question. “Why’d you strip me?” He looked at me for a long moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. But didn’t answer right away. Instead he walked over to a big panel next to the refresher door and swung it open to reveal the conservator. Inside I could see a dozen liter bottles of water and a six pack of some kind of local ale or beer. He grabbed one of the bottles of beer for himself and a bottle of water for me. He came back to the table after nudging the conservator door closed with a foot.

“Thanks.” I said, accepting the bottle as he sat down. Carth braced the bottle cap against the edge of the table and smacked it with the palm of his hand. There was a soft ‘chissshk’ sound as the cap popped off flipping end over end off towards the bunks.

“I couldn’t rouse you, so I got you out of your gear to check you over. When I couldn’t find anything wrong with you, I found a local medic to check you over.” he said before taking a long drink. His eyes closed in pleasure, as he lowered the bottle to the table with a little sigh of contentment. “Other than a bump on the head she couldn’t find anything wrong with you, she said to just let you sleep and call her if you were still out in forty eight hours, I was about to call her when you woke up.” he said, looking me over with some concern.

“I was out for forty eight hours?” I asked, alarmed.

“Yeah, it was really strange, I’ve never seen anyone sleep like that who wasn’t nursing some kind of serious illness or injury.” he said, puzzlement clear in his voice. “Anything like that ever happened to you before?” 

“No, not that I remember anyway. I don’t normally sleep for more than a few hours.” Two days, it was no wonder that I was dehydrated. 

“Well the Doc couldn’t find any wounds on you, quite a few scars, but nothing recent.” He leaned back thinking. Then went on. “Did you get hit in the head or anything on the way down?” 

“No, I just felt tired, and thought I would get some rest, since there was nothing I could do anyway. I suppose I could have hit my head once I lost consciousness.” I replied, thinking out loud.

“Well that’s true enough, we were tossed around pretty badly on the way down, we only made it down in one piece by the skin of our teeth, you’re one lucky guy.”

“No such thing.” the words were out of my mouth before I even knew what I was going to say. 

Carth snorted in derision, “Ha! Talked to a few of the Jedi back on the Spire did you?” He looked at me with congenial condescension, “Don’t believe everything you heard from them. They like to think they are a lot smarter than they are. Coincidence, luck, sometimes the universe just gives you a good or bad hand. Nothing to do with ‘The Force’.” he emphasized ‘The Force’ with finger quotations and another snort.

“Yeah you’re probably right about that, never mind. So how did we get down then? Sounds like it was a rough ride.” I said trying to change the subject. A strange surreal feeling tugging at the back of my mind. Where had I heard that before? I didn’t remember ever hearing the Jedi aboard the Endar Spire say it, in fact I only spoke to one of the Jedi the whole time we were on the Spire, and it had been a short conversation. I had only been briefly introduced to the Jedi accompanying us. We had been taken up to the Spire separately, and only the youngest member of their party had spoken to me. The young male human explained my duties, which I already knew of course, he asked me if I understood and when I answered that I did, I was dismissed without another word. They had all seemed arrogant and standoffish to me. So where had I heard that saying before? Other than brief glimpses on the battlefield, that short conversation in the captains ready room was the first time I had ever met a Jedi, better yet spoken to one. 

“You don’t remember the flight down at all?” Carth asked, distracting me from my reverie. An interested look on his face.

“Flashing lights and a shrieking noise?” I posed it as a question because I wasn’t sure if what I had seen was a dream or reality.

“Yeah that’s about it.” he snorted with amusement.

He went on then and explained the events that had transpired since we escaped the ship. Almost losing control of the pod on the way down, Trying to wake me, then enlisting Vakris for aid. The mad scramble out of the little pod and into the massive residential spire.

“That was a lot of weapons and gear to carry by yourself. Couldn’t bear to part with any of them huh?” Carth asked annoyance or amusement giving a wry turn to his features.

“Once we find someone to sell them to, we’ll be grateful to have them.” I said, feeling suddenly defensive, “We are in a hostile world with no intelligence and no support.” I sounded irritated and defensive so I made the effort to calm my voice before I continued, “If we want any chance of making it off this planet we need credits. Bribes, gear, information, all of that costs money when you don’t have official support.”

“I know, that was an attempt at a joke. You did the right thing, we will definitely need all the help we can get.” he said in a calm contemplative voice as he studied my face intently. 

For some reason that look made me suddenly feel very uneasy. I looked him over more closely trying to gauge him. He was obviously intelligent, you had to be if you made it to lieutenant and Helmsman of a cruiser. He was also quick and experienced, most of all though I was pretty sure that despite his easy going attitude he didn’t trust me at all. Something about the way he looked at me. Like I was some kind of criminal he was trying to befriend, in order to gain my trust and get me to lower my guard. I didn’t like it one bit, before that moment I had been still gathering my wits to some extent. I hadn’t noticed anything wrong, but now I could tell he was very carefully watching me like I might turn on him at any moment and he was trying to decide if he should turn on me first. I didn’t get it, if he was so suspicious of me why did he save my life? It didn’t make any sense. 

Carth caught on to my change in attitude instantly and one hand slid below the table not even trying to be subtle about it. I was a little surprised at that, he didn’t know me that was true, and I did hit him in the face. But why would he feel it necessary to do something so blatantly threatening? Maybe trying to provoke me into doing something stupid? Whatever his reasons we needed to work together to get off this planet. Therefore I did what I was trained to do. Confront the problem. 

“You don’t trust me, why?” I asked bluntly, watching for his reaction. His eyes widened slightly with surprise and I thought maybe a flash of approval but then it was gone. An impassive wall took its place revealing nothing.

“Probably for the same reason you don’t trust me. We don’t know each other.” he confirmed after a moment's pause. 

“True all we really know about each other is name and rank.”

“Well I saved your life so you know that about me at least.” Carth replied thoughtfully.

“True. But if you were this suspicious of me.” I said motioning to the hand still sitting below the table undoubtedly on the grip of his blaster. “If you thought you were going to have to shoot me later. Why bother saving me?”

“I saved you, because I have never left a man behind and I’m damn sure not about to start now!” Carth said with such vehemence that I couldn’t help but believe him. “Also, I wasn’t sure if you were on the level or not. I’m still not sure for that matter. But until I get some proof one way or another, I’m not about to condemn you. But I’m also not stupid enough to trust someone I just met and know nothing about.” he continued in a milder tone.

The moment his hand sunk beneath the table I tensed, muscles clenched and ready to shove the table into his chest with all my strength. At this point however I relaxed, I had a feeling that he was hiding something. But it wasn’t something that directly concerned me. I felt like he was telling me the truth, or at least he wasn’t trying to deceive me. 

“Ok. I believe you. Now take you hand off your blaster and finish the story. What happened after we made it inside this tower?” Just like that the tension broke, we both relaxed back from each other, letting the moment of danger slip away. A feeling of slight unease persisted in the back of my mind, but I ignored it and tried to get comfortable. 

Carth relaxed back against his seat taking a deep drink of his beer, before setting it down and laying both hands on the table next to it. He told me about the upper City slums and the apartment. Both of us grinned as he described the little trio of devil children that almost ran into us when we arrived. He told me about Vakris and the credit chit he gave us. Then he told me how he had gone out to get food and clothes. Taking the opportunity to do a little scouting while he was out and about. He hit a language barrier with most of the inhabitants of this particular level, and didn’t feel much like searching through the other levels for humans. Still he had managed to get some supplies with the credit chit Vakris gave him.

“That won’t be a problem anymore.” I interjected as he paused for breath. “I understand most primary alien languages, once I have a chance to meet a few people we will be able to learn more about the situation here.” 

His eyebrows rose at this, but after a moment's speculation he shrugged and continued on with the story. He had stopped in and talked to the Rodian that ‘owned’ the apartment. Expressing with credits, a strong desire not to be disturbed by anything. For any reason. Gludor, the Rodian in question, let it be known, in horribly broken Basic, that for another installment later in the week, he would be happy to intercede on behalf of our privacy. The deal struck, Carth made his way to the main level, but he hadn’t stayed long. There were Sith patrols all over up there and one of the Sith’s special investigation squads canvassing the area interrogating everyone they even thought might be suspicious. Apparently beatings and shock batons were common. _Thugs,_ I thought with disgust. _Right out in the open like that no wonder you haven’t found us yet._

His story concluded we sat thinking. Neither of us spoke, we sat quietly running the situation over in our minds for a few moments before Carth suddenly stood. 

“I’m hungry. How about you?” he asked looking down at me.

“Starved.”

“Alright I’ll go check on things top side and get us some food.” He finished off his beer then walked over to the bunk closest to the door. He pulled a Jacket off of the top bunk, it looked to be made of fine dark brown leather. Probably the most expensive thing he owned.

“I think I’ll shower while you're gone. I smell like a dead Bantha.” I replied, getting to my feet. 

“I didn’t say it.” Carth called over his shoulder as he walked out of the motorized sliding door. I cracked a smile as it slid shut leaving me alone in the apartment. A flash of the wide brightly lit hall beyond the door freshly imprinted into my mind. 

I took one of the new towels he had bought yesterday and headed for the refresher only stopping to pluck a razor sharp Beskar Dagger from among my gear in the storage compartment. I dropped the towel in the sink and set the dagger on top. Then stretched and turned to start the shower going. While the water warmed I stripped off the unfamiliar civilian clothes, running the problem of what to do next through in my head. Trying to work out what we had to do in order to find the Jedi. Either alive or dead, it didn’t matter, one way or the other I couldn’t leave without knowing what happened to her. Once I found her, I had to find a way off planet and back to Republic controlled space. Either with her alive. Or with the circumstances of her death to report to the Jedi counsel. 

First off we needed credits, lots of credits _._ I considered that as I stepped into the shower feeling the warm water splash pleasantly over my grimy skin. My tensed muscles relaxing slowly under the downpour. 

The weapons Trask and I managed to scavenge from the Sith on the Endar Spire would go a long way toward that, but we had to find someone willing to buy them first. We would also need information, the planet was controlled by the Sith. The reason we were there in the first place was to meet up with a small battle fleet outside the system and destroy the Sith blockade guarding the world. 

That brought me to another problem, one I hadn’t had time to consider until that moment. How did they catch us? They had interdiction vessels sure, the Leviathan, Malak’s flagship was equipped with an interdiction generator. But how had they found us.

Interdiction generators couldn’t be activated in hyperspace, that’s why the major trade routes like the Hydian Way and the Corellian Trade Spine had become so dangerous. A ship equipped with one on board would wait in a seldom patrolled section of a Hyperlane, generating a ‘Mass Shadow’. That would trigger the emergency overrides in the Navigation Computer on the target ship. The NavComp upon detecting the Mass Shadow would shut down the Hyperdrive on its own, to avoid a collision. Except there wasn’t anything there. The Mass Shadows were exactly that, massive but very weak artificial gravity fields, and thus completely harmless. Well unless, you activated a mass shadow in an already strong gravity well, like a gas giant or a star. But even then in order to actually be dangerous, it would take a lot more power than a normal interdiction generator used. But NavComps couldn’t tell the difference. So every ship that passed by on the route is forced out into ‘real space’. 

However ships traveling in hyperspace aren’t actually detectable by normal sensors. When a ship activates it’s jump drive, it literally drops out of normal space time. Ships traveling in hyperspace leave a detectable energy trail but only after the fact. Even a slow, class Two hyper drive generator was still reaching speeds so fast that by the time your sensors detected the energy wake, the ship was already long gone. The maximum range of the sensors on a Hammerhead Class cruiser like the Endar Spire, was only about fifty Billion Kilometers at the very outermost limits. A class two Hyperdrive could cover over a hundred billion kilometers in less than a fraction of a second. A class one hyperdrive like the Endar Spire’s, could travel twice the distance even faster. 

The only way to track a ship in hyperspace was to follow it in hyperspace. While it seemed simple at first glance it was actually a lot harder than it sounded. First of all one needed a Hyperdrive faster than the targets. But that wasn’t the real problem, the catch was that Hyperspace travel was so fast you couldn’t just point yourself after an energy wake and push a button, well you could but you might find yourself inside a star, or something equally as unpleasant. No, you needed a Navigation Computer fast enough to lock onto the energy signature, and plot a safe course after them fast enough so you could catch up and see where they were going, before they left you completely in the dust. The basic idea being; one heavily modified scout ship jumps in after an energy wake, catches up to the target and hides in its energy wake while they scan the ship and check it’s course. Then if it was worth pulling out to plunder, the scout would send the course and speed to an intercept vessel. The intercept vessel gets into place, drops a Mass Shadow and waits. Very complicated, taking multiple ships, crews and a lot of high quality, expensive equipment. Because of this, the only people known to do it were the Hutts and organizations like the Exchange. Navy ships on both sides, just stalked the Hyper-lanes making routine stops. 

The first method caught every ship that passed by, whether the interdiction team wanted it or not. Imagine a pirate's surprise when they spend all their ill gotten gains on an interdiction generator. Only to pull out a Capital Class Navy warship on it’s way back to Coruscant. 

I was pretty sure that we were the only ship caught in that spot, after all our route was almost a lightyear off of the established Hyperlane. I could have been wrong but I doubted it. Either we were being followed through hyperspace, unlikely but possible. Or, the more likely and much more disturbing option was that someone told the Sith we were coming, and where to catch us. If that was the case then we had a traitor somewhere in a very well informed position either in the government, Navy or the Jedi order. If not, the only option was that someone on board the Endar Spire itself, gave us up. Such a person wouldn’t have to be very important at all, an officer of any rank could gain access to an encrypted communications line. 

Then it hit me, that’s why Carth was suspicious of me. Under normal circumstances a Sergeant wouldn’t be given access to communications. But I wasn’t a normal Sergeant. I was officially brought on to serve as an adviser to the Jedi. On top of that I was Special Operations which gave me much more leeway, as far as access to secure systems, and even the chain of command. If I had felt it necessary to protect the Jedi on board, I could have ordered the Captain of the Endar Spire to do just about anything. As long as the order wasn’t considered a treasonous action. Or unless Bastila herself contradicted me.

So the Endar Spire was betrayed to the Sith and there I am on board with the power to send encrypted messages without anyone knowing. On top of that I came on board at Dantooine with the Jedi. No one on board knew a thing about me. Of course he would think it was me. He knew the other members of the crew and probably trusted them implicitly. Then on top of everything else, I showed up at the last minute to escape. The very last survivor to make it off the ship. If I had been the traitor I could have easily met with a Sith on board during the fighting and received additional instructions, before making my way to the escape pods. The real traitor waits near the one of the Sith infiltration points for word of whether or not Bastila has been captured. If she has, great, the traitor leaves with the Sith and the operation is complete. Or more likely the Sith kill him and leave his body to be destroyed with the rest of the ship and crew, leaving no evidence as to the traitor's identity. If they don’t get her however, the Sith send the traitor down among the rest of the Republic troops in hopes that he or she will lead them right to her. At which point the traitor contacts the Sith to give them her location and they come to collect her. If I had been in charge of such an operation it’s exactly what I would have done. 

Carth had been doing nothing but think for two days about the attack. He probably came to the same conclusion. Considering the first thing I did upon waking was hit him in the face, I was surprised he hadn’t just shot and been done with it. 

Then again, Carth could be the traitor. He had access to the communications array, he also had access to the route, he plotted the jumps himself. But I doubted it, it was possible but highly unlikely. Most likely the Sith would want someone less important as their agent. Someone they could control easily, a person who was just important enough to have access to the information they needed, but not important enough to draw scrutiny. Someone who wasn’t noticed often and quickly forgotten. Either way we needed each other for now. No matter whether he was the spy or not, our goals were the same in either case. If Carth was the spy I would find out in due time, then I would take care of it. If not then I would need help to find the Jedi and get off the planet. 

I relaxed back into the water, letting the problem go for the moment. It was warm and I was stiff and sore. Despite the fact that I had slept for forty eight hours I felt drained. The dreams were still wandering in the dark places of my mind, nagging at me. For reasons I didn’t understand they felt very important, like I was missing some crucial factor. Hidden just beyond my reach. Yet every time I reached for whatever it was, the thing just slipped away like some kind of greased eel. Wriggling through my fingers and sliding back down into the depths of my jumbled subconscious. Taunting me with knowledge just out of reach.

Growling slightly as it slipped through my grasp once more, I leaned forward and thumped my forehead against the wall as though to knock whatever it was to the forefront of my mind. Of course it didn’t work.

With a snort of disgust, I let it go for now and rinsed out my hair. Carth hadn’t picked up any soap. Still, the warm water felt good soaking through my thick black hair and massaging my scalp. I turned and let it pound down on my back, letting it drive away the tension that had built up during the last few days. Nearly dying in a space battle, losing a someone I considered a friend to a gods damned Dark Jedi, then crashing on an alien planet blockaded by the Sith. It was bound to build up some stress. 

A twinge of pain in my back made my right shoulder twitch uncomfortably. I tried to reach a hand back to scratch at it. But it was just under my shoulder blade and I wasn’t that flexible. Shrugging away the discomfort I turned off the water and got out of the shower stall. 

The tiny refresher cubicle was hot and steamy, a thick layer of condensation covered every surface. After drying myself with the towel I wiped off the mirror above the sink. 

Thin, well defined, symmetrical features looked back at me. Bright, slanted green eyes under dark brows and high cheekbones. There was a scar over the left eye almost exactly in the center. It stretched long and straight, from a couple centimeters above the brow, to half way down my cheek. A Sith scout had gotten a lucky swipe in with a knife a few months previously. 

There were other scars as well. Quite a few in fact, I had been in the Republic Military since I turned eighteen, almost eight years ago. A lot can happen in eight years, especially when you go from one brutal war directly into another. My chest and stomach were littered with scars. Small puckered spots from shrapnel, thin lines from knife and sword slashes and a burn about the size of my hand on my left side just below my ribs; still puckered and red with recent healing. 

There was another mirror on the door panel behind me. With a sudden burst of curiosity I wiped off that one as well to get a look at my back through the double reflections, maybe that twinge of pain I felt in the shower was an injury I suffered in the crash? 

I twisted back and forth craning my neck for a few seconds trying to get a good look. Then my blood froze, turning to ice water in my veins. There, in plain view on my back, edges still an angry bright pink, sat a puckered scar. About fifteen centimeters long and two or three centimeters thick. It also looked irregular and a bit jagged, it was in exactly the same place and the same size... The wound the dark lord suffered in my nightmare, was on my back.


	4. Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N  
> Okay, chapter four is as good as it’s going to get. Let me know what you think, it’s heavily edited from the original post on FF.net.

Chapter 4

Questions

  
  
  


For a long time I just stared into the mirror, complete incomprehension blanking all thought. What seemed like minutes passed as I stared at the scar. It couldn’t be real, they were just dreams. Vivid terrifying dreams, but only dreams. They just couldn’t be real. The idea by itself was just ridiculous. Impossible, completely impossible. But there was the scar, bright pink, puckered, and angry. 

Finally I snapped out of it, ripping my gaze away from the scar and looking back at my face in the mirror. I was pale, my mouth was a thin grim line, surrounded by thick black stubble making me look even more ragged and almost unstable. Why? Why is this shit happening to me? I had a job to do and I didn’t have time to be freaking out over strange dreams and mystery scars! 

I glared back into the eyes of my reflection and slapped myself hard across the face. The sudden pain helped bring me back out of my head a bit, allowing me to work through the problem at hand. None of this made sense, I’d heard about Bastila taking down Revan, of course I had, everyone had. It was obvious that the young Jedi in the dream was the same Bastila I met on board the Endar Spire, but everything I heard about the attack on Revan’s flagship pointed to Bastila killing the dark lord. That was the official story, Bastila, the soul survivor and hero of the Jedi strike team that killed one of the most dangerous Sith Lords to have been seen in over a thousand years. The woman in the dreams hadn’t even come close to killing that masked monster, she fought bravely sure, but if the explosion hadn’t happened when it did, he would have torn them apart just like all the others. 

On top of it all, I was on Coruscant at the time of that operation and in no way should I be dreaming about it. It would have been easy to dismiss the whole thing, if not for the damn scar taunting me in the mirror. None of it made any sense and I was starting to feel like my grip on reality was becoming tenuous. 

I shook my head and forced my mind back to the problem at hand. I had a mission to complete, I had never failed a mission before. I for damn sure wasn’t about to let dreams stop me now.

Pushing all thoughts of impossible dreams and inexplicable scars firmly out of my mind I turned on the sink, splashed water on my face and picked up the Beskar dagger. I had taken it along with my blasters from an unfortunate Mando during the first two months of the war. The woman had been good, and if not for a lucky grenade blast that exploded right behind her half way through our fight, I would have died right there. 

Glancing in the mirror again I grimaced at the disheveled face that greeted me. Long hair was one thing, I kept it groomed and pulled back into a ponytail most of the time. But a beard was unexceptable. It was slow going, but Beskar, or Mandalorian Iron, was the hardest known metal in the galaxy, making durasteel look like flimsi by comparison. The dagger was more than sharp enough to shave with and after a few careful minutes I looked back into the eyes of a clean shaven face. The slow and delicate task had done wonders for my state of mind, helping me order my thoughts and prioritize. 

Get dressed, get something to eat, then get out there and do some recon. I needed information, a lot of it. There were really only two main questions that I needed answered, but they were complicated with many different aspects. First, what level of influence did the Sith have on the planet? How closely were they watching the populous, did they have the cooperation of the local government? Second, How well organized and well funded was the criminal element? Did they have ships? If so did they have slavers and smugglers? But most importantly which ones, if any, were working for the Sith.

The Sith didn’t have Bastila yet. If they did, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to find the survivors of the Endar Spire. That meant Bastila was either free and in hiding just like Carth and I. Or she was being held captive by someone, most likely the Exchange. To find her and get off the planet we needed to learn how the criminal operations on the planet functioned and the extent of the Sith’s presence. The easiest thing to do would be go straight to the local Exchange boss. He would probably know everything I wanted to know. The Exchange probably had a way to smuggle people and goods off world. But that was a risky business, the Sith could have already contacted the Exchange to enlist their help in finding us. So we couldn’t contact them under our own identities.

I sighed and splashed water over my face again. I couldn’t know what to plan for until I learned more about the situation on the planet. Standing there staring into the mirror wasn’t helping anyone. 

I dressed quickly and went back out into the tiny apartment. Carth wasn’t back yet, I had no idea when he would be back and I didn’t really want to go running around without any backup. So I decided to make myself useful and go through the weapons Trask and I had procured from the battle on the Endar Spire. I carted the bags over to the table, they felt a lot heavier now than I remembered during the battle. I shrugged, setting them down on the floor before unzipping them and looking inside. My hair promptly fell in my face. I looked around for something to tie it back with. Not spotting anything I ripped a thin strip of cloth from the hem of my shirt and used it to tie my hair back in a loose ponytail. One day I would listen to regulations and cut my damn hair, but today wasn’t that day. 

Sitting on top in the first bag was my Blaster Carbine. Pulling it out I checked it over quickly making sure it hadn’t been damaged in the crash or when I was unconscious. It appeared in good order so I set it aside and started pulling out other weapons and gear, examining them quickly as I went, to make sure they were in working order as well. Soon the table was stacked with blasters, grenades and other gear. We had managed to take almost everything from the soldiers we fought on the way to the bridge. That all consisted of eight repeating blaster rifles, fifteen small hold out blasters, four heavy blaster pistols, eight flash-bang grenades, four Sith energy shields, four thermal detonators, and two dozen standardized energy cells. What I was most happy with however were the two Heavy Repeating Carbines. I grinned with glee at those. Trask and I had taken them off the first two Sith heavy troopers I killed. Those things would be worth serious credits if we could find a buyer for them. I wanted to keep the stun grenades, and the energy cells weren’t worth enough to sell, but everything else would be worth more than enough to do whatever we needed while we were trapped on the planet. Assuming we could find a buyer.

Satisfied with the haul and feeling relieved that we at least had something to trade with, I headed over and pulled my gear out of the compartment in the wall and headed back to the workbench. While I was looking over my armor for damage, I noticed the long cylinder of the Lightsaber I had taken from the dead Jedi on the Endar Spire. Carefully I slipped it free of the pocket in my armor to get a better look at it. 

The craftsmanship was incredible, the intricacy of the golden vines wrapping around the hilt was truly amazing. The Jedi had talent, but more than that she had obviously put her heart into this weapon. I began to feel a sense of calm as I turned it over slowly in my hands. Curious, I thumbed the tiny activator switch near the emitter. A dark blue blade sprang forth from the hilt, the legendary ‘snap hiss’ of the weapon was a welcoming sound that seemed both familiar and strange. Like the voice of an old friend you haven’t heard since childhood.

Slowly I stood from the workbench and walked to the middle of the room holding the Lightsaber lightly in one hand, the same way I held my vibroblades. I tried getting a feel for the blade, but I was used to solid metal swords. The balance of the Lightsaber, although excellent, still felt strange to me. Not having any weight behind a thrust or slash, just seemed off. Even so, I practiced some basic fencing moves and found to my surprise that once I actually started moving with the Lightsaber, it’s balance and meager weight felt much more natural. Pleased with this I picked up the speed of my mock battle cutting through imaginary Sith in my mind. I went faster and faster whipping through attack, counter attack combos so quickly that I began sweating.

I lost myself in the exertion not thinking of anything. Just spinning back and forth across the room seeing imagined Sith fall before the onslaught. Heart beating fast, taking deep steady breaths, with the thrill of my blood singing in my veins from the mock battle. But when I spun back to the door on my final lunge, instead of seeing a plain silver clad trooper in my mind's eye. I saw a stunningly beautiful woman, long brown hair framed an oval, fine featured face. Sad, bright grey-blue eyes looked out at me from under long black lashes. She was disheveled, dirt, ash and spots of bright red blood spotted her rosy skin. Her form fitting, cream colored, combat suit, was torn, burned patches showed scraped, raw skin across her torso and thighs.

I stood dumb struck, stairing at Bastila completely unable to process what I was seeing. The tip of the Lightsaber hovered in the air just in front of her throat. She wasn’t there, some part of my mind knew that for sure. But I could see her so clearly, as if she was truly standing there giving me a sad defeated smile. She opened her mouth as though to speak but a loud ‘thud’ sounded from the corridor outside and shattered the moment. In the blink of an eye she was just gone, as though she had never existed.

I extinguished the Lightsaber and slowly turned back to the workbench. The whole thing had left me feeling distinctly disturbed. First the dreams now this, I was going mad. That was the only rational explanation, I had never experienced dreams or visions like these in the past, at least not that I remembered anyway. I was tempted to just sit there and brood in silence, but my training kicked in. In times of crisis focus on things you can change, ignore the things you have no control over. Shaking my head I placed the Lightsaber back in the pocket of my combat armor and went to work adjusting and fine tuning my weapons.

**~~~~~~~**

Bastila’s eyes snapped open. _Revan? No not Revan_ , she reminded herself, _Rorick, Rorick Jager. That was the new name the Counsel gave him._ What was he doing with a lightsaber though, and where was he? She had seen him as though he were standing before her, here in this dank, dark cell. He’d looked so different from how she remembered him. His face was free of the twisting rage and disdain that used to mar the features under his mask. The telltale signs of the dark side, darkening veins, yellowing irises and the sickly pale pallor of his skin were also gone. Yet even her oldest memories of him from before the Mandalorian wars didn’t fit. That face had been free of scars and full of hope and quiet confidence. This new face was scarred, still handsome, but there was a weight to his startled green eyes that she had never seen there before. 

At least she knew he was there and alive on Taris. Did that mean he was actively searching for her? His mission was to protect and advise her, so logically he should be doing everything in his power to rescue her. If he was, The Ones help the Black Vulkars. Revan might not have the force anymore, but she had a sneaking feeling that he wouldn’t be stopped by such a minor _inconvenience_.

He had always been like a force of nature. No matter where he went or what he did, the galaxy seemed to just bend itself to his will. He started a movement that had hundreds of Jedi flocking to him as he led them off to war, despite the counsel openly opposing his actions. Those same Jedi stayed faithful to him even after the atrocity of Malachor V. Even when he named himself a Sith Lord and declared war on the Republic, still they followed him. Even without his memories, or the force under his command, she was sure that he would find her. The thought was at once, comforting and quite unsettling. 

On the one hand she was tired of the cell and she needed to get back to the Republic. Every day she was out of the fight more people would die. Her mastery of Battle Meditation was among the best the Jedi had ever seen in the history of the Order. She was needed, and being captured, by a common gang no less, rankled to say the least. The counsel had given him the mind and memories of a loyal Republic soldier, a man both highly trained and highly decorated, with an exemplary career in the military. They were sure that his new personality would be stable enough for him to help right some of his many wrongs. 

While she hoped they were right, Revan still terrified her. And not just because he had been a terrible force of evil. She had seen him slaughter an entire Jedi strike team made up of some of the best fighters the Jedi order had to offer. Just the memory of that day still made her shudder. He had been unstoppable, inevitable.

But what really sparked her unease was ever since that day, the day she had saved his life, for reasons she still didn’t understand, she had been connected to him. Somehow the act of healing him had formed a Force bond between them, stronger than any the Counsel had seen before. She could not only feel his emotions, but she could also sometimes sense his surface thoughts as well. It didn’t help that he had such strong feelings, they pounded against her mind constantly. From the moment he had regained consciousness after the Jedi counsel imprinted his mind, his emotions began battering her. She hated to admit it but they took a great deal of her self discipline to ignore. She could feel him even now, addled by drugs and unable to connect to the Force, she could still feel him, a nebulous presence somewhere in the back of her mind. Always being aware of another person, their thoughts and feelings. Not only made her feel like she was spying on him. It also came with a feeling of intimacy she found deeply unnerving. It was so unsettling she hadn’t even been able to meet his eye when she saw him for the first time after the ritual. She had just stood with the three Jedi accompanying her in the captain's ready room, staring at the wall, trying desperately to keep her emotions calm. How arrogant she must have appeared, refusing to even look at the man who was supposed to be her advisor. 

Bastila sighed, She wanted to hate him for what he had done to the Republic and to her friends on the strike team. Not to mention the unwanted bond between them, but she couldn’t. When she had delved him with the Force after his injury, she could feel his anger, his hatred of the Jedi and the Republic, but more than that she could feel a deep well of sorrow. Sadness so crushing, that it had taken every ounce of her self control to ignore it and focus on healing him. The things he had done were terrible, she didn’t know if he deserved another chance or not, but from that moment on she couldn’t condemn him. 

With the drugs in her system to keep her from using the force, she couldn’t quite reach out and grab the thread of their bond. But she could still feel it there, deep in the back of her mind. A dim glow of him just at the edge of her perception. She concentrated trying with all her strength to find him again. He was there, but the touch was so faint all she could feel from him was a sense of intense focus and anger. She couldn’t feel anything else from him, the drugs were simply too much for her. All she knew for sure, he was alive, and he was very angry. 

She sighed again and rested her chin on her knees, idly looking around the cell for the thousandth time. Cold bare duracrete walls, a metal toilet, sink and a cot with a thin mattress bolted to the floor. She had been locked up in the tiny room since she woke after the crash. It looked like an old storage closet that had been converted to a cell out of necessity. She closed her eyes but instead of trying to meditate again she tightened her grip around her legs, bowed her head and sobbed. It was all too much. Being a prisoner to these vile beings, unable to connect with the Force, feeling Revan’s emotions. In all her short life, she had never been so afraid. Trapped and alone held by a group of thugs, with her only hope being one of the most dangerous Sith who ever lived. If Revan didn’t find her she would be sold to the highest bidder, she would become a slave. She would honestly have preferred to be turned over to the Sith than become the property of the type of man or woman that liked to own young women. Just the thought of it was enough to make her feel sick. She tried to rely on the Force for strength, but with the drugs she could barely feel the force at all. On top of all that, Revan was free and she wasn’t there to watch over him and make sure he didn’t do anything terrible. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft footsteps coming down the hall outside. Over the last few days she overheard the guards coming and going. Listening to their conversations was how she learned where she was and who captured her. She tried desperately to reach out with the force to see who it was, hoping that it was just another shift change. But to no avail, she could think relatively well, but whenever she tried to reach out for the force, it was just out of reach. Like trying to grab smoke, she could see it in her mind. But every time she reached for the Force, it just slipped through her fingers. 

The footsteps stopped outside her cell and she could hear someone typing a code into the panel next to the door. A few soft _beeps_ later and the door slid back into the wall revealing Brejik. 

The leader of the Black Vulkars, was a man of average size, with a pinched rodent-like face. Dark skin, close cropped black hair, mud brown eyes and the voice of a shrieking Kinrath. It all came together to make him one of the most unpleasant men Bastila had ever met.

He wore a well made black suit with blood red trim and looked down on her with an obvious sense of sneering superiority. But for all the bluster she couldn’t help but notice that he was staying well away from her holding a very powerful stun baton. He was afraid of her, the satisfaction Bastila felt at realizing that fact fled immediately. Brejik was the type of insecure man who wouldn’t countenance the idea of being afraid of a woman. He would need to prove to his men and himself that _He_ was the one with the power, not her. The truth of it was born out at once when he opened his mouth.

“So, the mighty Jedi huh? Don’t seem like much to me, bitch.” His high pitched voice bounced around the walls of her cell making her flinch. He misunderstood the movement and laughed delightedly, thinking that she was afraid of him. “Now now, no need to be frightened, I don’t plan on hurting you. Can’t very well sell damaged goods.” he said laughing.

“So that’s the grand plan then? Sell me to the highest bidder?” she asked, already knowing the answer and not quite able to keep the scorn from her voice.

Brejik was taken aback by the sudden show of defiance, but it quickly turned into anger. “Not very wise to mouth off with me girl.” he growled trying for deep and menacing, he only succeeded in sounding like a dying cat.

The combination of his high pitched voice and the pitiful threat struck her as funny, she let slip a sharp laugh of derision before she could stop herself. It was a mistake. Under normal circumstances the idea of him threatening her _would_ have been funny. Her situation however was anything but normal, she was his prisoner and she was powerless while under the influence of the drugs. 

His face turned a deep shade of red and before she could say anything or even take another breath, he struck out with the stun baton. He moved with impressive speed and the point of the baton caught her in the ribs of her left side before she could so much as gasp in surprise. 

A powerful electrical current shot into her with such force, it made her whole body jerk and convulse with agonized pain. Brejik continued shocking her for a few seconds until satisfied that she had learned her lesson. Bastila noticed that when he finally broke the contact he was quick to step back away from her, but not as far back as he had been. Causing her pain had bolstered his confidence, making him feel in control. She was secretly happy for that, it would mean he wouldn’t be so quick to hurt her again. As long as she could keep from laughing at him of course.

“We have a number of buyers already lining up to purchase you, I must admit I was surprised to hear how much you were worth to some people.” he said crouching down to get a better look at her in the low light and speaking as though he hadn’t just been torturing her.

“How much are the Sith offering?” Bastila gasped out once her breathing was under better control, trying not to let her fear show in her voice.

“Oh please, if the Sith found out I had you they wouldn’t bother making me an offer. They would probably just bombard this whole section of the city from orbit. I’m smarter than that girl.” 

Bastila was honestly surprised to hear this. She had legitimately thought him that stupid. If he had intelligence enough to predict a negative outcome from contacting the Sith, maybe she could reason with him. Even though it was far more likely that the Sith would send some kind of squad to retrieve her and kill all of them, rather than just leveling the whole area from orbit. At least he understood it would be a bad idea. That gave her hope enough to try.

“Okay, let me ask you a question.” she said and paused, when he just looked at her with slight curiosity she went on. “Do you want to be ruled by the Sith?” 

“No. I despise the Sith.” he said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“If you don’t release me, it’s very likely that the Sith will win the war.” Bastila said slowly and clearly, willing him to accept what she said.

“Is that right?” he asked with a mocking grin. “Jedi are tough sure, but if my men could take you down, I bet the republic will do just fine without you.” Scorn was plain in his voice as he finished.

She chose not to point out that she had already been unconscious when his men found her. Instead she kept her voice level and calm, ignoring her anger and disgust for the man. “I’m not important for my combat prowess, I’m a master of battle meditation, have you heard of it?” she asked, her focused eyes willing him to see reason.

“No, but let me guess you're about to tell me that it’s vitally important to the war effort and you're the only one that can do it?” He said, with a knowing grin. 

She just looked at him for a moment, completely stunned. He thought she was lying. This brain dead moron thought she was trying to con him. Bastila growled with frustration and looked away to hide the sudden burst of anger that roiled up inside her. Brejik laughed mockingly, assuming he caught her in a lie.

“Nice try girl but you’re not the first to try and talk their way out of the slave market.” he leaned back against the wall and looked her over with satisfaction.

“Believe what you want.” she shot back, the anger dying away to be replaced by a deep despair. “When are you going to sell me?” she asked in a cold hollow voice.

“Well I haven’t decided yet.” he said thoughtfully, as his eyes played over her in a fashion that made her skin crawl. “You see, the season opener for swoop racing is coming up in a few days. All the major players are involved of course and everyone has to put something into the pot as an entry fee. Most people put up credits, or their swoops if they don’t have any other option. But I’m going to win this year. If I put you forward as the entry fee, I wouldn’t have to front the entry fee. And I would get you right back since there is no way I can lose.” He sounded distracted as he explained the situation, the look of grimy, lustful, interest getting more disconcerting by the second.

“If you’re so sure, why the hesitation?” Bastila asked, trying to distract him as he took a step towards her.

“Just covering all my bases.” He grinned pleased with himself. He obviously thought highly of his own intelligence and wanted to brag about his incredibly ingenious plans. She just barely managed to keep a straight face as he continued. “As long as we win, it will be an easy matter to sell you afterward. Probably at a better price than I’ve been offered so far.”

“So when is this big ‘season opener’?” 

“Like I said, in a few days.” he said with a quick frown before his expression changed to a cruel smirk, “I’ll have to find you something suitable to wear, when I put you on display.” He sneered, lust flashing stronger in his eyes, obviously imagining something he found very appealing. Judging by the tiny bulge growing in his trousers. Bastila’s eyes were drawn down to it and before she could stop herself she snorted with laughter. 

Brejik looked down, following her line of sight his face turned purple with embarrassed rage. “Oh think it’s funny do you.” He shrieked, really leaning into his ‘dying cat’ persona. 

Bastila knew what was coming, there was no way out of the pain, so instead of trying to mollify him she went another route. “I was just wondering how long you have to look for it when you need to piss.” she said and burst into unhinged almost hysterical laughter. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she had ever been so crass. She also knew it was stupid to antagonize him, but with the drugs in her system and the fear of lay before her if Revan didn’t make it in time, the stress just overwhelmed her, she just couldn’t help it.

Brejik let out a wordless bellow of rage and charged forward. He slammed the stun baton into her stomach so hard that if the electrical current wasn’t locking every muscle fiber in her body completely rigid, she would have thrown up all over him. As it was she just coughed and gagged as she jerked and spasmed on the thin cot. The pain was so intense that everything else fell away. The high pitched shrieks of Brejik fading away as the white hot agony burned through her body.

At some point she must have lost consciousness, because the next thing she knew, the pain was gone. She lay panting and shaking, face down on the cot. She could taste blood in her mouth and she felt as though she had been run over by a herd of Banthas. Her stomach felt like someone had ripped a hole into her with a dull spoon. She was so sore that breathing made her chest spasm with pain.

“Teach you, fucking cunt!” She heard Brejik say from somewhere by the door. His voice was gruff and raspy like he had screamed his throat raw.

Bastila was so exhausted and in so much pain that she honestly didn’t care about him just then. But still something made her turn her head back to look at him out of the corner of her eye. He was panting for breath, hands braced on his knees. She examined him for a moment trying to collect her scattered thoughts and push the pain from her mind. Instinctively she reached for the dim glow of Revan at the edge of her perception. She was surprised to find that she could feel him much more clearly. A burning bone deep rage emanated from him as she brushed against his mind. The feeling was so strong that she gasped involuntarily. Brejik’s head snapped up at the sound and looked at her with suspicion clear on his face. 

She looked at him for a long moment, examining him and comparing him to Revan. “Brejik,” she said, her voice no more than a hushed whisper from all the screaming. 

“What? You got something else smart to say bitch.” He snapped but there was no real fire behind his words. 

“There is a man looking for me Brejik,” Bastila paused to spit a gob of blood onto the floor before turning to meet his gaze. “When he finds me, you’re going to die.” This time when he jabbed her with the stun baton she fell blissfully into unconsciousness almost at once.

**~~~~~~~**

Carth found me there a quarter hour later, as I was tinkering with my repeating carbine. By reflex I spun in my seat the moment I heard the door cycling open. Carth had the unnerving experience of staring down the barrel of said carbine for a long moment before I recognized him. 

For the space of that moment he thought I was going to fire, I could see it in his eyes. But I lowered the blaster and the moment was gone just as quickly as it had come. He visibly relaxed and stepped into the apartment trying to keep his obvious mistrust hidden, while I set the blaster down on the workbench and got up to help him with the food.

He had found some kind of roasted meat and noodle combination that seemed to be found on every world with seedy food stalls. It was surprisingly good despite it’s questionable provenance. We sat at the table eating in silence, just looking at each other and thinking. I devoured the food, two days with nothing works up quite the appetite. While we ate I wondered if I should break the ice and confront him about the mole on board the Spire. But decided against it, if it became a problem I would deal with it. But for now I was itching to get out of the apartment and do some scouting. I glanced down at the wrist comp, 14:00 local time, still early enough to get the lay of the land and start the search for information.

“So how is it up there, any changes?” I asked putting aside my decimated food carton.

“Not really, the Sith have moved on from the immediate area around the crash site. But they are still patrolling the pedwalk and the surrounding area pretty heavily.” he said setting aside his own carton.

“So probably not a good idea to go up there in full battle armor, huh?” I asked sitting back and glancing over at my gear, sitting at the base of the workbench.

“No probably not, civvies and small arms seem to work okay. They haven’t stopped me yet.” he said standing and taking the empty containers to the trash bin by the door.

“Well, I’m ready to get out of this apartment, how do you feel about going out again?” I asked, standing and heading for my boots.

“Maybe you’ll have better luck, I haven’t been able to learn much yet. So far all I’ve got is that most of the pods crashed in the Upper City, all the crew members from those pods are already in Sith custody. Or so they claim, as for pods that crashed on the lower levels, all I’ve heard are a few rumors of a couple crashing in the Under City. But that is thousands of square kilometers...” he trailed off with a shrug. 

“I have a few ideas. Have you been to the local Cantina yet?” I asked belting on my hip holsters.

“No not yet.”

“Good. Whenever you’re looking for information on a planet where you have no contacts. First place to go is always the local Cantina.” I said with a grin. I checked over my blaster pistols, made sure they were charged and slid them into my holsters.

Carth opened his mouth to respond when a sound came to us through the door, a loud ‘Crash’ followed by a high pitched feminine scream. I looked to Carth, who came to the same conclusion I did.

“The Sith are finally searching down here.” he said, tone and face grave. 

I felt rage boil up in my gut and a very different type of grin spread across my face. “Let’s go welcome them to the neighborhood shall we?” I said with a snarl stepping towards the door. The sudden shift in my emotions probably should have concerned me, but with all the weird shit that happened to me in the last few days, I couldn’t bring myself to question it.

“Could make things a lot harder on us if we don’t keep our heads down.” He said looking torn as another scream and a blaster shot sounded outside.

“You stay here if you want. I’m going to help these people.” I said in a disgusted yet calm voice as I walked to the door. I understood his point. It was a good one, attracting attention to ourselves was a bad idea. But I was still angry over the loss of Trask. That combined with the weird dreams, phantom scars, and seeing visions? Nope, I desperately needed to take my mind off my own deteriorating sanity. More than that though, I was really, really angry. I wanted to kill something, and a group of Sith terrorizing innocent civilians, was exactly the sort of target I needed. 

Carth cursed behind me as I slammed my hand down on the door release and waited in mounting impatience for the few seconds the door took to slide open. Outside the smell food, sweat, and stale alcohol, assaulted my nostrils. But over all of that was the nebulous, indefinable smell of fear, thick and acrid on the air.

I turned right and headed down the hall at a brisk clip, following the sounds of sobbing and the thuds of metal hitting flesh. It only took a few seconds for the scene to come into view around the bend in the hall, but it felt a lot longer, hearing the cries of women and the gasping thuds of someone being beaten.

They stood near the main Turbo lift shaft. A Sith Captain, four silver clad Sith troopers and two Combat Droids.

“Where are the Republic spies?” The Captain said, looking bored as he checked his pristine nails, not even bothering to look at the young male Twi’lek pinned by two of his men. The Twi’lek couldn’t have been more than twenty or twenty one, with dark blue skin that was turning black, and swelling dangerously around his eyes and cheekbones from an intense beating. He was pinned up against the wall by two of the troopers while the third drew back his arm to smash into the poor kid’s already battered face. The two droids stood to either side of a beautiful Twi'lek woman, who looked a few years older than the one being beaten, and two young girls, whom I assumed were the man’s wife and children. All three of them had dark green skin gone quite pale with shock and fear. The droids held two repeating blasters trained on them, effectively holding the four civilians hostage. Yet the young mother was holding both of her children in a death grip as she watched her husband with eyes so filled with rage and terror, she hardly seemed to notice the droids holding them at gunpoint. 

I slowed to a quick silent walk trying to look non threatening with my head down looking at the floor, so as not to alert the droids to the threat I posed. The five human Sith were too occupied with the beating to notice me as I quickly came up behind the group. The Twi’lek man started laughing as he spotted me. One of the silver clad Sith smashed his rifle but into the man’s gut making him gag and throw up all over the Sith bastard. But he just leaned back laughing harder afterwards, almost shaking with it. 

“Alien scum, so unhinged that they laugh during a beating! I’m most likely wasting my time here, this one has probably already sustained brain damage.” the Captain paused for a moment considering the young alien before a cruel grin broke across his face. “Might as well keep going corporal, just to be safe.” he continued with cold amusement. 

The Sith who had been on the receiving end of the pore kids vomit was frozen in place for a long moment while his captain spoke. Suddenly jerking into action he pulled off his own helmet, and was violently sick himself, all over his comrade’s silvery boots. The captain made a disgusted noise and took a step back, right into my path. While everyone was distracted I got right up behind him. 

“I think he was laughing at your arrogance.” I whispered in the same moment I snaked my arm around his neck and pressed my blaster barrel to his spine. “You didn’t even notice a threat right behind you.” 

With a sharp intake of breath the Sith froze, holding perfectly still. His men spun at the sound but I was between them and the Captain. They couldn’t do anything but stand there and look stupid, their blaster barrels bobbing up and back down again trying to decide whether or not to to aim at me, despite the officer in the way.

“Now that I have your undivided attention.” I said very softly so only the Captain could hear me. “You are going to order your men to drop their weapons and let these people go.” He took a deep breath obviously for some kind of threatening retort, but I interrupted him. “Think very carefully about your next words. If I hear anything other than ‘Drop your weapons,’ I will kill you and take my chances.” Something in my voice must have gotten across my seriousness because he didn’t speak at all. He just motioned with his hand for the troopers to drop their weapons. When they hesitated, he made a furious motion with both hands and the blasters dropped reluctantly to the floor.

“Now I want you to say, ‘The aliens are free to go.” I said digging the blaster into his back.

“The Aliens are free to go.” he said in a jerky breathless voice, as he started to tremble.

“Carth get them away from here.” I called over my shoulder. But he was already moving, I saw him out of the corner of my eye taking the young woman by an elbow and motioning to the girls. His other blaster trained on the two combat droids as they stood impassively waiting for further instructions. At the same time the young Twi’lek man shrugged passed the two Sith that had been holding him and limped off after his family moving with surprising speed for someone so badly beaten.

“The aliens are free, you got what you wanted, now let me go.” The Sith Captain said, trying in vain to make his trembling voice sound commanding. “I don’t know who you are but you really don’t want the whole Sith empire hunting you for the murder and an officer.” He continued sounding a little steadier, his confidence building as he spoke.

“Thank you for your cooperation.” I said, my tone soft and calm, then shot him through the spine.

I was already spinning away as he fell shrieking in shock and pain. The two droids activated basic combat protocols, when I opened fire and were already raising their weapons toward me. Time seemed to slow, just like it had back on the bridge. The droids movements were slow and sluggish like they were submerged in mud. I could see every single imperfection in the droids plating as I brought up my own blasters with infinite slowness. In my peripheral vision I could see Carth, blasters in hand charging back down the hall towards us, his jacket flapping slowly behind him as he brought up his own weapons.

My vision seemed to zoom in slightly as I took aim on the droids. Their durasteel Chassis coming into focus with startling clarity, every dent, nick and scratch easy to see as I depressed the triggers of my blasters. The two droids had only managed to raise their weapons a few inches as I put two shots into each of them, one into each dull glowing photoreceptor. As they started to fall I dove to the right, spinning as I went. Time seemed to start speeding up again as I watched the first man go down under Carth’s fire and the other three dive after their discarded weapons. By the time I hit the floor on my side time was moving normally again, but it didn’t save the Sith. Three quick shots into the closest man, only two meters away. The first shot hit him in the shoulder as he bent to pick up his Blaster. The next hit him in the back as he spun away from the pain, the last caught him at the base of the skull, dropping like a stone. I switched my aim to the last man standing, as Carth put down the other. This one had finally gotten his Blaster up off the floor and was turning to face Carth. Mistake.

I lined my shot up carefully, as Carth’s bolts burnt into the walls around him, I depressed the trigger. A perfectly circular hole appeared in the man’s helmet, I could see the blackened scorch mark on the wall beyond where the blaster bolt struck after leaving his skull. The Sith stood for a moment then turned slowly to look at me before falling forward to _clang_ loudly against the floor. That left only the captain. Laying flat on his back near my feat, vainly clutching the hole in his stomach and screeching like a banshee. I aimed half heartedly and pulled off a quick shot, ending his undignified wailing as a hole appeared in the top of his head. 

Afterward everything was completely still in the corridor, nothing moved except the small wisps of smoke, sliding up from blaster holes and scorch marks. I collapsed back, suddenly very tired and gasping for breath. I could hear Carth gasping as well, then the sound of metal sliding against leather as he holstered his blasters and walked forward to survey the damage. His face appeared above me and his hand reached down. I took it and allowed him to help me to my feat, feeling my frantic heartbeat begin to slow.

“You are frighteningly fast, you know that?” Were the first words out of his mouth, as he slowly scanned me up and down as if seeing me for the first time. “I have never seen speed and accuracy like that.” He rested his hands on the pistol grips in his holsters as he looked around at the carnage. The smell of burnt fabric and flesh mingling with the stench of bladders and bowels as they relaxed into death, releasing their contents.

“We should gather their gear. Never hurts to have more.” I said stooping to pick up a Blaster Rifle. But before I could do anything else Carth turned back to me a sudden look of dawning realization on his face.

“I take it back, I have seen speed like that before.” He sounded confused and a little suspicious. “Jedi and Sith fight with that kind of speed.”

The simple statement made me shudder involuntarily as I stooped to pick up another blaster. I ignored him, I couldn’t think about it. The dreams came back to me in a flash, the jagged scar below my right shoulder blade haunting me. When I straightened back up I could see Carth readying himself to speak again and I cut him off.

“Reaction Implants, I’m Special operations remember.” I was lying. I didn’t have any implants, I never needed them before. But I couldn’t think of any other explanation and I really didn’t want to tell Carth about my visions, he was suspicious enough as it was. 

He didn’t seem at all convinced, but he let it go with little more than an already familiar suspicious glance and helped me gather up their weapons and gear.

“It’s a shame about the armor.” he said as we stood surveying the bodies.

“Yeah would have been nice to have just in case.” I replied having felt the same regret as we worked. A full set of Sith armor would have made getting around the City much easier.

“You have need of Sith armor?” I deep voice in heavily accented Basic said from behind us, followed by a pained cough. 

We turned in unison to see the young Twi’lek man standing a few feet away. His wife or girlfriend helped support him as he stepped closer to us. She didn’t look happy, giving the man an irritated glare from under his arm. Though it was obvious from the loving and long suffering look in her eyes that she was just worried for him. 

Which was completely understandable. He looked terrible, one of his eyes had completely swollen shut. The other was only a slit, barely visible past the swelling, in fact his whole face was puffed up to the point where he was almost unrecognizable. One of his Lekku had a large gash dripping blood down to the floor as it twitched with pain. 

“You need medical treatment.” I said as I bent to take a closer look at him. I spotted a slight trembling in his hands, he looked like he was about to collapse.

“I’ll recover,” he said trying to stand straighter as the woman supported him. “We owe you our lives, if we can do anything to repay you, we will.”

“You need to be in bed.” the young woman interjected, narrowing her eyes in frustration. Her voice wasn’t as heavily accented as the man she supported, but it was soft and caring despite her glare. 

The young man just gave her a knowing smile and she sighed, looking away and rolling her eyes.

“Any idea what we can do with the bodies?” Carth asked, after a slightly awkward pause

“We will take care of them, we have ways to make them disappear.” He said with a note of grim satisfaction as he looked down at them.

“Thank you.” I said truly grateful to the man, many would just run and hide after an experience like what he just went through.

“It is the least we can do. If you need undamaged Sith armor, I have a couple suggestions.” he said with a grim smile through the bruises.

He told us about another residential tower a few kilometers away that had been almost completely taken over by the Sith and was now in use as their primary barracks for the entire planet. They often held parties that lasted all hours day and night, some of the more ambitious or daring locals were invited. 

“What’s your name?” Carth asked when he had finished his explanation.

“Karn” he said simply then motioned to the woman who still supported him. “My wife Tylan.”

“Karn, Tylan,” he said looking to them in turn, “Thank you very much for your help, and take care of yourselves.”

“Yes thank you, we really appreciate the information, and the help with the bodies.” I said, making a mental note to add their assistance in my report when we got back to republic space. Maybe I could convince my superiors to give them a reward of some kind. 

After that we excused ourselves and headed back to the apartment carrying the weapons and gear from the Sith. With the danger over, people began spilling from their hiding places and filling the corridor. I saw a few that looked angry or resentful, but most gave us grateful smiles, or awed glances. When I glanced back from near our apartment, the inhabitants of the tower had already dragged off two of the bodies and a couple young Rodian girls, barely even teenagers, were cleaning the area. Wiping away all traces of the conflict. I just stared in mild surprise at the scene. I’d guessed these people were tough, but they were disposing of the bodies with all the concern of a janitor picking up litter. After another moment watching them work I just shook my head and left them to it.

By the time we stowed the gear and made our way back, it was like nothing had happened. All the food stalls were open again and people were milling about, eating, drinking, talking, laughing. There was a noticeable strain in the air, and the sounds were more subdued than I had heard through the door from earlier in the day, but overall it seemed these people were tough and determined not to let the incident bring them down. It actually made me feel good to see it. Even though the Sith were terribly powerful and oppressive, good people like these _aliens_ they despised so much, could pick up their lives and move on. A little battered and worse for the wear maybe, but not broken, not defeated.

Carth and I made our way up to the main Pedwalk outside the building. For a moment I just stopped, taking in the life of the city. Getting a feel for the people and the energy of it. Every large city has a life to it. You can feel it in the air, see it in the way people move, the way they talk to each other, even the clothes they wear. These people were well dressed. With fine fabrics and complicated styles. Many of them wore jewelry of some kind or another. They weren’t talking very much, instead they walked fast and most of them kept their heads down, not making eye contact with anyone. 

They were afraid, and they weren’t used to it. They still dressed in ways to catch the eye, but in turn were afraid of being seen. Like the public unconscious hadn’t realized they were invaded yet. Everything I could see, the quick strides, furtive glances, jerky movements. It all said one thing, Fear. A stark contrast to the people back on our level of the super tower, they didn’t seem to be nearly as affected by the Sith’s presence. _They're probably used to oppression, while these people, the former oppressors, are finally getting a taste of how it feels._

We made our way to a small merchant quarter directly across the Pedwalk Plaza from the Tower. We didn’t talk, I could see that something was bothering Carth, but I was too intent on my surroundings to pay him any heed.

The merchant quarter as we discovered, consisted of a dozen various shops. Clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, nothing of interest save one. “Kebla Yurt’s Outfitter.” was proudly displayed above the doors of the last shop on our right.

“I think this might be the one Vakris told me about.” Carth said as we approached the doors.

Inside the place was packed full of survival equipment, body armor and weapons. Exactly the type of place I was hoping for. The proprietress was a dark skinned human in her early thirties and very attractive. Short cropped dark hair and chocolate colored eyes. She had a bright smile, welcoming us enthusiastically. 

“Welcome to Kebla’s Outfitting Emporium, it’s a pleasure to see new faces, how my I help you today?” she came around the counter and shook our hands before standing back and waiting politely as we looked around taking the place in.

“Not set on any one thing yet,” I said meaningfully. Carth glanced at me confused, I gave him the smallest shake of the head, silently asking him to let me do the talking.

“Oh I see,” Kebla eyed me speculatively for a moment then asked. “Were you thinking of gear or weapons?” 

“Well here’s the thing...” Over the next several minutes, I felt her out trying to gauge whether or not she was working for the Sith? If she wasn’t, would she be interested in ignoring their civilian trade laws. All in the pursuit of smart business of course. Kebla was very shrewd and picked up on what I was doing immediately and started feeling me out in the same way. Making sure I wasn’t working for the Sith, or trying to get dirt on a successful business owner, or any of the hundred reasons someone could have for trying to screw her over. After a certain point it became clear we were both on the same page. She hated the Sith and appeared to be very interested in some new stock.

“So you lost all your heavy firepower to the Sith huh?” I asked as we moved over to look at her stock of arms and armor.

“Yup, the most powerful thing I have now is a Sith Sniper Rifle. The bastards forced me to buy it from them, after they stole half my stock!” She practically trembled with rage at that. Good that’s exactly what I needed, anger tended to make one less cautious.

“Well I happen to have a few more interesting weapons that I don’t necessarily need...” I left the statement open, waiting as I looked through her shelves.

“What kind of weapons?”

“Standard repeating blasters, Heavy blaster pistols, a few concealed carries, and five thermal detonators along with a couple personal energy shields.” I said without looking at her, just continuing to feign interest in the display. I let her mull it over for a moment, then as though just remembering something I turned back to her. “Oh I also have Two Blastech E-220 Heavy repeating Carbines.” She only held out another moment.

“I want to see them in person, I’ll be damned if I’m going to buy defective weapons.” It was a perfectly ordinary request and I could hear it in her voice, Greed. She would be able to make some **big** money off the Heavy repeating blasters and she knew it.

“When would you like to see them?”

“How soon can you get them here?”

I turned and walked over to Carth without responding, he had grown bored of word games and wondered off sometime ago.

“She is going to buy all of them, or as many as she can afford.” I said in a voice so low, Carth had to lean in to hear. “We just need to go get them.”

“You sure she isn’t going to set us up?” he asked dubiously.

“Almost positive, but on the off chance, one of us needs to hang around to make sure she doesn’t have a sudden change of heart.”

We looked at each other for a long moment then Carth nodded, “You go. I’ll stick around and keep an eye on things.”

I nodded back then walked back over to Kebla. “I’ll be back in less than an hour.”

“Good, I’ll be waiting. Is your friend there going to help you get the goods?” she asked with a carefully blank expression. 

I grinned, malevolence clear on my face. “I’m afraid I just couldn’t drag him away, don’t worry, you won’t even notice him.” The implication was quite clear and her face hardened. But she nodded with a slight droop of the shoulders. Normally I wouldn’t resort to threats but if she buckled and contacted local law enforcement or even worse, the Sith, people would die. I really didn’t feel like killing anyone else, or getting innocents killed in an escape.

The way back to the apartment was uneventful. I set aside the grenades I wanted to keep along with all the power cells, before grabbing both bags. I looped one over each shoulder, tightened the straps and turned to leave. But something stopped me. I looked back to the workbench where my armor still sat. An instinct I didn’t quite understand pulled at me until I stood looking down at the pocket in my armor. Without thinking I reached down and slipped the lightsaber free, examining it carefully for a long moment. I shook my head trying to dislodge the urge to put it in a pocket and take it with me. Carefully and deliberately, I bent and tucked it back into the pocket from whence it came. I stood pushing the strange impulse from my mind. Still puzzled I grabbed up my armor and packed it into the storage compartment in the wall. Then I grabbed the power cells and the grenades off the table and stashed them in the storage compartment along with my gear. I took one last look around the place, then turning I quickly locked the door behind me and struck out for the Pedwalk at a brisk clip.

The way back to the shop was a little more nerve wracking. I was obviously armed and I had two huge bags strapped to my back. I got quite a few curious looks as I passed people on the pedwalk, but I ignored them and looked straight ahead walking purposefully. About half way back I passed by a Sith patrol heading the opposite direction. I felt my heart beat speed up with a sudden spike of adrenaline as one of them turned to look at me curiously. I managed to keep a bored expression and kept looking straight forward not meeting anyone’s eyes but not looking down either. A trick I learned a long time ago; in a populated area, keep your eyes straight forward, walk purposefully but don’t rush. I didn’t know why it worked, but on every single planet I’d been too, people just instinctively got out of the way. Most of them didn’t even realize they were doing it either. The Sith looking at me though, was a bit more perceptive than most. He was turning to me, I could tell by his body language he was about to yell for me to stop. But one of his comrades nudged his shoulder and motioned him to keep moving. He glanced back, but gave in and let me go following his fellows on down the Pedwalk.

I let out a huge sigh of relief feeling blood pounding in my ears. I honestly didn’t know what I would have done if they stopped me. I didn’t have any identification so they would have searched me, found illegal weapons and I would have had to kill half a dozen Sith right out in the open air surrounded by hundreds of people. Or let them take me in and once they figured out who I was, probably die painfully after days of torture. I shuddered at the thought and despite myself, I picked up my pace eager to get off the street. Fortunately the rest of the trip went smoothly with me arriving back at Kebla’s shop just within my half hour time frame.

Kebla was waiting behind the counter towards the back of her shop, Carth was leaning against the counter speaking to her in hushed tones. As I approached Kebla leaned in, whispering something that wasn’t quite loud enough for me to hear, before she straightened up and motioned me forward. As I quickly made my way towards them I heard the door behind me open, a man walked in and looked around before his eyes settled on a display of blaster pistols.

Ignoring the man I stepped up to the counter nodding to Carth. “We’ll wait over there while you deal with your customer.” I said without preamble, motioning to a corner of the shop.

“Yes, I don’t want to have heavy weapons spread out over my counters. Once he’s gone I’ll take you both to the back and see what you’ve got.” She whispered as the man bent to look at a collection of holdout blasters in a display case.

“Hello sir is there something I can help you find today?” She asked in a bright cheery voice as she moved off to help the man. 

I motioned Carth to follow then lead the way to the far corner of the store so we could speak without fear of being overheard.

“What were you talking about when I came in?” I asked in a tone just loud enough for Carth to hear.

“Asked her about the other escape pods.” he said 

“And? Did she know anything?” 

“Actually yes.”

“So, what did she say?”

“The way she heard it, half a dozen escape pods came down in this section of Taris. However only one landed in the Upper City. That was us obviously.” he paused as Kebla laughed loudly at something the customer had said.

“Go on.” I prompted him.

“One landed in the Lower city and the rest all landed in the Under City.”

“How did they navigate through the other city levels to make it all the way down there in escape pods?” I was dubious to say the least.

Taris was an Ecumenopolis, not as extensively constructed as Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa, both of whom had literally thousands of levels of city construction. Taris only had four, if you counted the Under City. Even so the Lower, Middle and Upper Cities were each a few kilometers thick. The foundation of each level being several hundred feet of reinforced Durasteel, then almost two kilometers of open air. All of it was supported by the massive Super towers, or Sky towers to the locals, and equally massive repulsor lift generators. The idea that an escape pod could somehow make it all the way to the Under City passed all of that was a little hard to believe.

“Light holes.” he said with a look of mild incredulity. “Or sky holes depending on who you ask. Basically there are a few, kilometer wide holes that go all the way down to ground level. Most of them have been filled in and built over. But Kebla said there are still a few of them dotted around the planet to allow natural light down to the surface.” 

“That makes sense; they haven’t had thousands of years to build like Coruscant.” I said.

“It means we are going to have to find a way down there. The Sith have blocked all air traffic through the different levels, and only Sith patrols are allowed to use the passenger Turbo Lifts between levels of the city.” Carth said, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

Before I could respond we heard Kebla wish her possible customer fare well. We both turned and watched as Kebla followed close behind the man to activate the bright red, electric ‘CLOSED’ sign as soon as the door closed after him. She flicked over the lock on the front door and hurried back to us.

“Ok let’s see this merchandise.” she said leading us to the large storage room behind the counter. I laid out everything on a huge table in the back. We waited in patient silence surrounded by floor to ceiling shelving racks, filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes, as Kebla checked over each weapon by hand to satisfy herself that everything was in order.

“How much do you want for all this?” she asked, looking at me with a deeply interested expression.

“Twenty.” I said in a flat tone. I had thought about the number all the way back from the apartment. Under normal circumstances I probably could have gotten over thirty. But with the world under quarantine I had to be realistic, people were hurting financially especially people like Kebla. Small business owers who didn’t have the capital to survive losing some of her most expensive stock. So unless I went out and sold it on the street myself, which I wasn’t about to do, I would have to take what I could get. Knowing all this I figured she would haggle with a passion. That’s exactly what she did.

“You must be out of your mind! Twenty thousand while we’re under a blockade?” she gave me a look of feigned hurt and shock. Carth also looked at me like I had lost my mind, but he probably didn’t know how much they were worth, so I just ignored him.

“Don’t play games. By this time next week you will have sold both of those Heavy repeaters for at least fifteen each.” I said with an exasperated sigh.

“I doubt it. The only people with the money for something like this, is the exchange and I don’t have any kind of a deal with Davik. So getting a good price for them might take me months. I can’t take the Thermal Detonators at all, if I get searched again and the Sith find those, I’ll go straight to a cell.” she said with conviction. “Eight thousand would be much more reasonable.”

“Nineteen...” 

After a painfully long back and forth, I finally got fed up with her and started shoving the blasters back into the bags. At which point she backpedaled with surprising speed away from the current insult of eleven.

“Fourteen. That’s really the best I can do. And that's for everything except the Thermal Detonators.” She said, gazing longingly at the heavy repeaters. 

“Fourteen and a ten percent discount.” I countered, giving her a _take it or leave it,_ expression. I would have loved a better deal but I was getting very anxious to get moving, to start the hunt. The feeling had been growing in me for most of the day, ever since I saw the vision of Bastila back in the apartment. I didn’t know what to make of her. I’d seen her in person one time and now she was showing up in strange dreams that felt too real, and even appearing like an apparition in my waking life. I needed to find her and hope she had some answers. If she didn’t, well I couldn’t think about that at the moment.

Shaking my head to clear it I put out my hand and waited. After a few moments it became clear that I wouldn’t budge and Kebla sighed. She took my hand we shook on it, neither of us particularly happy. I took it as a sign that the deal was probably as fair as we would get. 

We immediately took advantage of the discount. All we had were weapons. We needed some survival gear if we were going to be going down into the Under City. From what I had read on the local data net after my shower, the Under City was dangerous. Roaming gangs of former criminals who had been cast down there as a _delayed death sentence_ of sorts. The Sith would also have a presence down there, if only to search for the escape pods. They also had all the turbo lift access points locked down, **_sanctioned travel_ ** only. So I worked in a few pieces of gear we could use. Like a small backpack and a set of basic survival gear, rope, cantines, flashlights, ect. She was more than happy to offset our payment with the equipment, following us around her shop making helpful suggestions. 

“You two are going after the escape pods huh.” she said, not quite asking as we piled everything we needed onto the counter.

“Perhaps, how is that any business of yours?” I replied, giving her a cold stare as I started to organize the survival equipment into the new packs.

“I’m not going to say anything,” she said quickly, trying to reassure me. “I just thought you should know that there are things a lot more dangerous than the Sith down there. You should go prepared, that’s all.” 

Sounded like the start of a sales pitch to me, but Carth seemed interested so I kept silent.

“Like what?” Carth asked leaning forward slightly with a quizzical expression.

“Rakghouls.” she said with an involuntary shudder of revulsion.

“What’s a Rakghoul?” I asked, confused. When I had searched the local Data Net earlier that morning I hadn’t seen anything about any ‘ _Rakghouls_ ’ and told her so.

“No of course you wouldn’t. They live exclusively in the Under City, so nobody cares. Gods help us if they ever figure out how to work one of the industrial turbo lifts though.” 

“So what are they?” Carth asked, interested, but skeptical.

“They’re mutants of some kind. No one knows where they come from, a lot of theories but no one really knows.” she paused for a moment, giving us a grim smile. “What we do know is that they are big, freakishly strong, surprisingly fast, and they attack anything that moves. What’s more if you get bitten, that’s it. You turn into one of them and lose everything that once made you... you.”

Carth and I just looked at each other for a moment letting this new information sink in.

“So is there no cure, or vaccine to protect against being bitten?” Carth asked, recovering first.

“Not to my knowledge, no. I suppose there is always a possibility of it. But I haven’t heard of anything.” she said, giving us both a sympathetic look. “It’s not like anyone is in a big hurry to help Undercity dwellers.

“Well shit.” I couldn’t really think of anything else to say.

What could we do? We didn’t really have a choice in the matter. We had to find those pods, that meant getting down there and looking. Not really a pleasant task to begin with and now a very dangerous one, if she was telling us the truth. Still better to be safe than sorry.

“That being the case, we should probably get you some armor.” I said turning to Carth. 

“Yeah you’re probably right.” He replied, glancing over to the display cases filled with armor, lining one of the walls.

“I have a couple sets that would probably fit you.” Kebla said, trying to hide a pleased smile as she motioned for Carth to follow her.

I glared after her, there it was, I knew it sounded like a pitch, and we’d fallen right into it. Instead of calling her on it, I just sighed and followed. The fact of the matter was, Carth did need armor, whether we bought it here or elsewhere.

Kebla led him to a simple light combat suit made of reinforced synthetic cloth that would probably have a hard time stopping a knife. Carth just glanced at her obviously unimpressed. It just made her smile as she pointed out another set a few cases farther down. We walked over and I had to admit it was an improvement. Black armor plates with red trim, over a solid black combat suit of much higher quality than the first. 

Seeing the look of approval on Carth’s face I just sighed again. “How much?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“It’s one of my best,” she paused and looked us over for a moment as though coming to a decision, “but since you both have been fair and honest with me I’ll do the same. Two thousand.” 

It looked like a custom set that was probably special ordered for the previous owner. So two thousand was probably a good price and if it wasn’t, I wasn’t in a position to be particularly picky. I just nodded and waved for her to get the armor.

She smiled before placing her hand on a palm scanner next to the case. She left us to pack the armor into our bags while she went to stand next to her register. Once it was packed up we headed over to her.

“Thanks for the business boys.” she said with a smile

“Thanks for all your help Kebla.” I shifted the weight around on my back until it was comfortable then turned to Carth. “Are you ready to get going?”

He just nodded settling the bag with his armor over his shoulder

I turned to Kebla and waited patiently as she reached down under the counter and pulled out a blank Credit Chit. A quick swipe across her business computer, a few quick taps against the screen and she held it out to me.

“After the cost of the armor and survival equipment it comes to twelve thousand six hundred even.” she said handing it to me. “If you come across anything interesting keep me in mind.” she couldn’t help a satisfied smile, while she looked us over.

I tried not to glare while Carth thanked her. I couldn’t figure out why he seemed to trust her when he was still so obviously suspicious of me. _Maybe he’s attracted to her, then again maybe it’s just me he doesn’t trust._

We decided to drop off Carth’s new armor and everything we couldn’t sell back at the apartment. The walk back was uneventful, only a few short minutes and we arrived back to the small space. Since our next stop was the cantina, Carth showered while I changed into a new shirt since I ripped a strip of the current one for my hair. Deciding on a simple black short sleeve that stretched tight over my shoulders and chest, I slipped it on then combed out my shoulder length wavy black hair with as best I could with my fingers and put it back in a tight ponytail. Once I was satisfied that my appearance didn’t warrant scorn, I set about storing our equipment while I waited for Carth. 

He emerged a few minutes after I finished stowing our equipment, freshly shaved and wearing pretty much the same outfit I wore. He came over to where I sat at the table idly browsing the net looking for any information about the escape pods.

“Never shaved with a dagger before,” he said with a bemused grin, handing the dagger in question back to me, “it was a little more nerve wracking than I expected.”

“You seem to have done a decent job.” I replied with a grin, standing up to put the dagger back with my armor. 

He just snorted and pulled on his boots. “Why did we have to get pretty again?”

I gave him a steady glare and narrowed my eyes. “I know you’re inexperienced when it comes to intelligence gathering, but that should be obvious.”

“I thought we were just going to have some friendly chats with the locals,” he paused to look up at me before going back to his laces, “why do I feel like I’m getting ready for a date?” He was obviously uncomfortable.

I just sighed, “Because the more someone likes you the more they’re willing to say, and there are few times when someone likes you more than right after an orgasm.” I said, as bluntly as possible, I didn’t know why but I just couldn’t help needling him.

His face flushed as he looked back up at me with a dumbfounded expression. “You’re serious,” he finally said after a long awkward pause, “That’s your plan, just walk in and seduce some random person?” I could have cut his incredulity with a knife.

“We are looking for a receptive Sith to take us back to his or her rooms in their barracks tower. How else did you expect this to happen?” I asked, taking note of his sudden flush and look of slight disgust at the word ‘his’. _Not into men I see._

“Karn said they hold parties. I thought we could just get an invite to one of those.” his voice was uncertain.

“It’s easier to get invited to a party by someone interested in sleeping with you.” seeing his continued discomfort I decided to take pity on him. “Look Carth I’ve had to do this sort of thing before, if you aren’t up for it I can go by myself.”

That snapped him out of it. “I’ll be fine,” he said, finishing with his boots and getting to his feet, “let’s just get a move on.” He didn’t look especially happy but the determination on his face was unmistakable. Deciding that he probably wouldn’t make things too much harder than they needed to be, I just shrugged and led the way back out of the apartment. _You never know, maybe he’ll learn something._

As we rode the lift to the pedwalk I checked the local data net for nearby cantinas. Finding a listing for one that looked promising I led Carth out onto the pedwalk and through the early evening crowds, heading for the super tower directly across the pedwalk from ours. 

The outside of the Cantina was fairly plain, just a set of large automatic doors just inside and to the left of the tower’s main entrance. Inside however, the cantina was massive, the entrance was a large open lounge with dozens of people seated around Pazaak tables. Some of them were laughing with glee as they won, while the losers sat with sullen glares or shouts of outrage. Further in, beyond the gambling lounge was a central circular dining room with a huge support pillar in the center. Branching out from that, were three other rooms of similar size. One appeared to be a lounge, a number of patrons, many of them armed and armored, sat in large booths along one wall while the other was covered in floor to ceiling view screens. Excited sports fans clustered in front of the screens watching some kind of melee bout unfold with crystal clarity. Another of the branching rooms contained an elevated dance floor with scantily clad female Twi’leks dancing to upbeat music with heavy bass. The group clustered around the stage was mostly made up of men but there were a few women looking up at the gorgeous Twi’lek dancers with just as much lust as the men were displaying.

The last room contained what I was looking for, the bar. It was huge, covering the whole back wall of the room, behind the bar stood a tall human male with black hair and a jovial expression, along with a short blond human with lively brown eyes and surprisingly large breasts for her size. A stunning dark green skinned Twi’lek was stepping out from behind the bar with a tray of drinks as we entered. She winked at us as she passed with an obvious sway to her hips. Carth nearly choked, causing me to cough with an attempt to suppress my laughter.

Valiantly keeping a straight face, I motioned for Carth to follow me as I headed for the bar, all the while carefully examining the people we passed. Soldiers almost always have a certain zeal for celebration that was largely unique; only really able to be matched by university students. Their clothes also tended to give them away; they usually wore plain, sturdy, well kept items with short hair and spotless shoes. Not very stylish but always clean and well maintained. Military life had a way of ingraining itself into every aspect of a person's life, making them easy to spot. 

It only took me a few seconds to find what I was looking for. A group of Sith troopers, eleven in total took up two tables right next to each other, conspicuously empty tables sat to either side of them where they locals had obviously refused to sit. That didn’t seem to bother the Sith however, they were laughing and yelling jokes and insults back and forth with the passion of people trying hard to forget that everyone on the entire planet hated them. 

I walked past them with only a glance, making my way to the bar. Carth and I gently but firmly forced our way up to the bar and waited for the black haired human to spot us. The music from the room with the dancers floated to us on the air giving the place a feeling of vibrancy and life, totally at odds with everything else I had seen since leaving the apartment. The people felt it too, all around us people were talking and laughing with a sense of excitement that everyone else on the planet seemed to be missing 

“So what’s the plan here?” Carth asked, leaning in to be heard over the music and loud voices. He managed to look only a little uncomfortable.

“That group of Sith at the tables over there.” I motioned at them. 

He looked over then turned back and nodded. “What about them?” 

“I’m going to go over there with some drinks and get one of the girls to fall in love with me.” I said with a shit eating grin.

Carth glared at me for a long moment trying to figure out if I was being serious. “You are joking, right?” he finally said looking unimpressed.

“I told you what the plan was before we came here.” I said becoming dead serious. “Hopefully I’ll get one of them to invite me back...” I was interrupted by the bartender walking up with an expectant smile and raised brow, obviously waiting for my order. 

I ordered two pitchers of Tarisian Ale then turned back to Carth as the guy walked off to get the drinks. “I’ll try to get you invited as well.” I said looking him up and down. We were both dressed almost exactly the same. But Carth had the look of someone who would rather be anywhere else. I doubted he would be able to convince anyone that he was out for a good time. While covert information gathering and seduction weren’t technically something that marine special operations typically took part in. I had been put in the position enough over the years to become fairly comfortable with it. I figured that at least one of those girls had to be lonely enough to take a chance on me. 

“Do you think we’ll actually be able to get Sith armor at one of those parties?” he asked, looking dubious.

“Sure, why not. They think they’re invulnerable right now. The whole planet is under their control, and our attempt to take it back was just crushed in orbit. I bet you they head back to the super tower after their duty shifts, take two steps into their rooms and strip right there. There will be full sets of standard Sith trooper armor sitting just inside almost every room in the barracks tower.” I said glancing over my shoulder to look at the group of Sith again.

Out of the eleven Sith at the tables five of them were women, more than I would have expected, but it made my job easier all the same. None of them were sitting close to any of the men, which was surprising. They say ‘familiarity breeds closeness’, but then again they also say ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. It looked like this group was leaning towards the latter.

“So what? You just go over there and ask one of them to take you to the party? Just like that?” Carth asked, still dubious.

“Yeah Carth I’m just going to walk over there and say something like ‘Hey ladies anyone interested in getting laid tonight’?” I said, making my annoyed sarcasm obvious.

“I’m sorry if I have a hard time seeing you as a master of seduction.” he said, with a raised brow and a deadpan tone. The bartender came back with our ale, before I could respond. He set the pitchers down in front of us along with two glasses then held out a portable credit chit scanner. 

“Haven’t you ever picked up a woman in a bar before?” I asked, as I paid the man then turned to look back at the table again, studying the group. Silence greeted my question. It took me a moment to realize he wasn’t going to answer. I pulled my gaze away from the Sith’s table to give him a half annoyed, half disbelieving glance. “You’re joking...never?”

He glanced away looking at the wall, his cheeks flushing lightly. “I got married right out of the academy.” was his reply, barely loud enough to be heard over the music and voices around us.

I just stared at him for a moment, I wasn’t stunned, not exactly. More like I was imagining having someone that important to me, someone who stuck with me despite constant deployments and the inherent fear that came with them. The longer I thought about it the more a small worm of jealousy built in my chest. I never had the opportunity to find a person like that, and I couldn’t deny feeling envy for that kind of connection. 

After a long moment of him looking off into the middle distance while I blankly stared at him, I broke the silence pulling my mind off my musings, “I didn’t know that, I can handle this, I don’t want you to feel like you need to do anything that would affect your marriage.”

He turned back to meet my gaze, sadness and anger battling for control of his face. “She’s gone.” 

It was a simple statement, but one that helped me understand the man sitting next to me. His suspicious and standoffish attitude made much more sense after that revelation. Giving him a simple nod I turned back to the table deciding to let the subject lie.

“Just do your best to relax and try to be friendly.” I said examining the table. 

Of the women, two of them were ugly. No ugly wasn’t the word, I wasn’t even sure if hideous would do it. Those two looked like they had fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every single branch on the way down. The stuff of nightmares, truly disturbing. Despite how desperate those two probably would be to have some male companionship, I didn’t think that it was a wise move. First off, women like that are usually ignored at best or viciously abused at worse. They would be extremely suspicious of a decently good looking man suddenly showing interest in them. Second, I didn’t know if I could keep a straight face while trying to tell one of them that I was interested. Some lies are just too far fetched, even for me. I was actually surprised to see women that gruesomely bad among the group. Despite what people might think, in my experience not very many ugly women joined the military. Sure there were plenty of unimpressive girls out there. But the majority I had ever seen in military service were somewhere between plain, and drop dead stunning. 

So the question was, how to approach the group? I couldn’t tell them who I really was, it didn’t matter how drunk they were, a republic Spec Ops sergeant was not going to get me anywhere with them. Except maybe shot. So I had to make up a story. Just as I was deciding on a course of action when the woman I had been eyeing up as a potential target, stood and walked off to the far left of the room. Heading toward a small dimly hall with a sign above it for the refreshers. She was one of those that fit into the ‘in between’ category. She was a pretty girl with short dark hair and a lithe hourglass figure, but her nose was a little too long and just a little too crooked to be considered truly beautiful. She looked to be early twenties, which was perfect. She would be accustomed to men hitting on her but it wouldn’t happen so often as to make her jaded and unresponsive.

Deciding to take a chance I grabbed my ale and stood, motioning for Carth to stay at the bar. Walking with a steady unhurried pace I followed after her. Once back in the hall I took up a position just behind the door to the ladies room. I waited for less than two minutes. I heard short clicking footsteps, then a sink turned on for a few seconds, then more clicking footsteps as she headed back out. The door opened and I leaned forward quickly smacking my forehead against the door, while at the same time dumping most of my drink down the front of my shirt. I uttered a muffled curse and stepped back grabbing my head. I hit the door a little harder than I had intended, stars flashed up before my eyes for a moment as I staggered back to lean against the wall. 

It worked though. The young woman came around the door with quick steps to see what had happened. There I stood holding my head with Ale spilled all over my front and a slightly dazed expression, not entirely faked either. She made one of those small breathless gasps and rushed forward to check me for damage.

“Oh I’m so sorry! Are you Ok? How badly are you hurt? Oh no and your drink? I’m so sorry.” she babbled on in this fashion as I tried to tell her I was alright. No I was fine, don’t worry about it, only an accident entirely my fault, no really I was fine. That continued all the way back to their table where she sat me down in her own chair ignoring her slightly confused friends and checked the rapidly growing bump on my forehead. 

“Wow, what did you do Tara? Hit him with a bottle.” A redhead on my right asked laughing as she saw the swelling bump.

“Of course I didn’t!” Tara, apparently that was her name, I liked it, the name suited her somehow. She bent over me looking at my forehead with wrapped attention, not realizing that she was shoving her considerable breasts in my face. They were very nice breasts, and she wasn’t wearing a bra under her tight, low cut, sleeveless top. I was momentarily distracted by the abundance of bosom, as she dipped a napkin in a glass of water then gently dabbed it against forehead. A few of her male compatriots noticed my momentary distraction, two of the men looked amused, like they understood how one could be distracted by such an occurrence. The third man did not look amused, in fact his face started turning red with anger. He stood at once and grabbed Tara’s arm pulling her back away from me.

“Leave off the civilian Tara.” The man said with more anger than I think he intended. It sounded like a command which was a mistake, the woman although seeming to be very nice and considerate toward me, was an imperial soldier. Instead of backing down she yanked free of his grasp and took a step away from him, back toward me.

“Daven what do you think you’re doing? Don’t you dare grab me like that!” She snapped back at him with a glare of defiance.

Daven feeling affronted narrowed his eyes at her, his face turning red. “I wouldn’t have to if you weren’t acting like a slut.” He said in a low but challenging tone.

Tara didn’t hesitate, she whipped her leg up with surprising speed aiming for his groin. Daven twisted at the last second and caught the pointy toe of her low-heeled shoe, in the meat of his inner thigh. The man grunted with pain but it just seemed to make him angrier. I could tell things were about to get ugly, which wouldn’t serve my purposes at all.

“Hey look I didn’t mean to cause trouble I’ll just get going, enjoy your evening everyone.” I blurted out standing quickly and making as though to back away from the group. 

“No you didn’t make any trouble at all,” Tara said, reaching out and grabbing my shirt, she pulled me back towards the chair. “Daven here was just being an asshole, that has nothing to do with you. Sit back down. I'm going to get you some ice and a drink since I spilled that one.” she said pushing me back down into the chair and motioning to the empty ale glass. She then gave me a quick smile and moved off towards the bar, all the while completely ignoring the man who so obviously wanted her attentions. 

“She told you Daven!” One of the other men sitting across from me said laughing with a little more enthusiasm than the joke warranted.

“Shut it!” Daven shouted back at the man, which of course only made him laugh harder. “I’m warning you Kai, shut it right now or I’ll beat you into silence.” he growled at the other man.

This seemed to be exactly what the other guy was hoping for, because he stood up at once and came around the table to stand nose to nose with Daven. They stared each other down for a moment, both men glared with murderous intent. They probably had a long standing dislike for each other, with that kind of instant hostility. They stood about the same height, with Daven standing about an inch taller. Both of them had dark hair and brown eyes. But that is where the similarities ended. Daven would probably be considered a homely man, though well muscled. While the other guy, Kai, was quite handsome even more so than Carth or I, he was thin but taught as a whip. Obvious strength and speed ready to explode in sudden violence at any moment. I had met his type before, they were the type of guys who liked to fight for no other reason than **_Because_ **. The type of guys that took hits to the face with a laugh before trying to bite your ear off. Unhinged was the word that came to mind and this guy was no different. I could see him tense, ready to spring into action. Normally I would be happy to let these scum balls kill each other, but I had a job to do and a brawl would be a very large wrench in the works.

“Wow the sexual tension is killing me.” I said in a completely neutral tone, just loud enough for the enraptured group of Sith around me to hear. A moment of very tense silence followed while as one the two would-be-combatants turned murderous glares at me. But then the redhead who had spoken earlier busted up laughing so hard she almost fell from her chair. Just like that the tension broke and everyone else started laughing, even Kai grinned at me before walking back to his seat. The only one who wasn’t amused was Daven, he was turning purple with rage as his friends guffawed all around him. If looks could kill, he would have turned me to ash on the spot. His eyes burned into me with murderous hatred for a long moment, then he spun on his heel and marched, stiff necked, from the Cantina. 

Tara arrived back at the table with a fresh Ale and some ice a few moments after he left. She stood very close to me as she set down my new drink on the table before bending down to put the ice gently against my now very tender and slowly swelling forehead. 

“What was all the laughing about? Oh I’m sorry did I hurt you?” she asked as I winced against the pressure of the ice.

“No you’re fine. Thank you for the ice and the drink.” I said reaching up to put my hand over the ice and letting my fingers brush against hers as I smiled up at her. She smiled back down at me letting the contact of our hands over the ice pack last just long enough to make her interest clear before turning away to pull up another chair next to mine.

The rest of the night went smooth. We talked and laughed together for almost an hour before Carth made his way over and pretended to have just arrived looking for me. It was a smoother entrance than I would have given him credit for, especially when everyone immediately insisted that he join us. He pulled up a chair next to the red head, whose name I had come to learn was Rielin. She took to Carth straight off and invited him back to the barracks tower for a party later that night. Shortly after that, Tara placed her hand high up on the inside of my thigh and asked if I would like to head back to her private quarters with her. Which wasn’t an easy question to answer. The short answer was Yes. I actually like Tara, she was funny and smart with the kind of toned hour glass body that any man would be stupid to ignore. She also had that indefinable allure that made small imperfections like her crooked nose, seem to pale by comparison. Even so, it wasn’t very often that I would go off with a random woman I had just met, especially a Sith. I had my share of one night stands like most soldiers, but I always found them lacking. It was only when I was truly desperate for companionship that gave in to temptation. What’s more I didn’t know anything about this girl, she could be the lovely young woman she appeared to be, or she could have been a serial killer. 

But I didn’t have much time to think about it. Yes or No question, with the clock ticking and the opportunity to gain open access to the Sith barracks tower. Ultimately I did the only thing I could really do.

“What are we still doing here? Let’s go.” I said, feeling almost surprised by my own genuinely excited smile, as I stood and pulled her up after me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N  
> I decided to upload to AO3 just in case something happens on FF.net. However, I wrote the first six chapters several years ago, going back over them has been quite literally painful. They are nowhere near being up to my current standards of writing and I’m doing heavy rewrites before I post them here. Therefore it’s going to take me a while between chapters, longer than I thought it would. Hopefully I’ll be able to do one a week, but the rewrites are extensive and I make no promises. 
> 
> TLDR; when I started writing three years ago, I sucked and now I’m trying to fix it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting to AO3, if I missed anything or made a massive mistake in posting details let me know.   
> Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading. :)


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